Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rings of Distortion
by WarsOfShadows
Summary: Xavier, a former human, has just been transformed into a Treecko! With no memories of his former life, he joins a Torchic and a Croagunk with dreams of becoming the world's greatest exploration team. But with a new threat arising, it's up to him to save his new home. But does this catastrophe have to do something with Xavier's mysterious arrival? *Updated sporadically*
1. The Beginning

**So hello, readers! Welcome to my very first PMD fic.**

 **I decided to start a PMD fic because I really liked the idea and plot of these side games, and how pokemon would interact if they inhabited an entire world. I'm going to keep this at a T-Rating because there will be infrequent swearing.**

 **Warning: Death is common in this world. If you do not like the idea of death or if you're going to puke at rare mentions and presence cannibalism, then this isn't for you.**

 **And then here it is! The very first chapter of** ** _Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rings of Distortion_**.

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

"God…Where the hell…?" He looked around, suddenly gasping. "WHA—!"

Colour. That was all saw…every possible shade in the entire universe.

He did not make a sound. The colours swirled in the air, occasionally transforming into different shades. It felt as if there was a wave of colours flowing over his body…but then he looked at himself.

He had no body!

As far as he could tell, he was just a nebulous spheroid of light. His body, or whatever, seemed to exude power and rays of sunlight were escaping from him like quills being ejected out of a Quilladin.

"H-How…?" he muttered. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Fufufufufufufufufu…"

"W-Who's that?" He rotated about his spot and saw the vermillion quickly turning to scarlet. "Where – What are you? Why am I like this?"

"Ha." Then, it spoke, "Quite a journey you've been through, little one. My, very few have been able to do that."

"Do what?" No response. He grew frustrated; he felt like ripping his hair off, provided he had hair. "TELL ME SOMETHING!"

The voice simply chuckled. "In due time, in due time…"

He gulped. His mind was racing, trying to recollect what previously happened. He had so many questions buzzing in his mind but he didn't know where to start. Memories flocked back to him, and he paused. Yes…he was a human…a human! A normal human who wasn't a ball of light, one who was in his mid-teenage years…he remembered seeing stacks of papers, but nothing was clear about what was written on it…the memories stopped. Then something else rushed past his mind, and he got a glimpse of it…him falling through a…an ovular disk? Yes. And then…only darkness…

He was brought back into the current situation by the voice talking once again. "Shall we begin?" it said.

"Yea…"

"What?" he asked, and once again he strained on his mind…His name, his name…what was his name? Burton? No, that wasn't it. Something with an unusual letter…X…Xavier! Yes, Xavier. "I-It's Xavier."

"Good, good." The voice once again chuckled. "Now, what—"

"Excuse, me," he interrupted, "but can I ask _you_ a question?"

The voice laughed. "No! I shall ask the questions, not you." Its voice was a bit sterner now. "Question number one: Do you find yourself humming or singing often?"

"What?" _What a weird question._

"Do you or do you not?" it enforced.

 _Shithead…Okay, um…I don't even like singing? Why…_ "No, I guess."

"Oh, alright." The voice seemed disappointed. "Well then, next question: How do you blow up a balloon?"

"WHAT?"

"You heard me."

"Okay…Big, but not too big, y'know?"

"Do you think lies are necessary sometimes?"

 _That is_ deep. _Well, I guess…_ "Yes, I think. Well, mostly because—"

"I don't want an explanation," it dismissed. Xavier felt belittled. "Next: The phone rings! What do you do?"

"Wait for a while," Xavier replied confidently and immediately. "I don't want to sound desperate, so I do that…a lot."

"Next, you find something at a great bargain! What do you do?"

Xavier thought for a moment before giving his answer. "I guess I'd better think if I really need it."

The voice cleared its throat. "That's all then. I have a good idea of what you'll become."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, alarmed.

"You'll find out, chum!" he laughed wildly. "I hope to see you soon, Xavier. Until then, get ready to explore a new world!"

"W-W-What…? What d'you mean by a 'new world'?" No reply. "Come on, TELL M—Woah!"

The colour around him disappeared and turned into a clear shade of purple. He let out a scream as he sped up, as if rushing towards a black dot miles ahead of him…no, not a black dot. It kept getting bigger and bigger, and he let out a yelp as he was sucked into a black void of unending darkness.

* * *

 **Morning [10:17 AM], Corsola Coast**

"Ngh…Where…am I?"

Xavier opened his eyes and repeatedly blinked to accommodate to the light that was entering his eyes. He groaned as he took into account his surroundings, and it seemed to be that he was at the outskirts of a thick, dense forest.

Xavier grunted as he pushed himself up, his arms still weak and his eyelids still heavy. He looked around, screwed his eyes shut and balled his fists. _I swear I'm going to beat that guy behind the voice…_ "Eh, I guess I'll just have to explore a bit and call for help…"

A few minutes passed as he walked around, finally landing at the beachside and looking at the azure water. Simply looking at it made his throat dry, and he winced as he rubbed his head. "Gosh, I better drink some water…"

He walked over to the edge and peered into the water, but he almost jumped as he saw his reflection in the clear water.

He was what a normal organism would describe as a small, green bipedal pokémon with yellow eyes and narrow pupils. His hands and feet had three digits each while his stomach and throat were blood red. A line across his stomach made it resemble a pouch, and his large, dark green tail with two separate lobes twitched nervously as his previously calm demeanour broke out into an expression of pure horror.

"W-What the…" He held his head in despair. "I…I'm a bloody Treecko!"

 _Why am I a Treecko?!_ He thought to himself in his mind. _Eh, forget it now. There's no use._

Then, he bent lower and touched his lips to the water, slurping it down until he finally realised what it was and spat it.

"SCREW THIS DAY!" he cursed as he looked up in the air and threw his arms about. "First, I'm called to this weird voice who asks me stupid questions; then, I'm magically transformed into a bloody _Treecko,_ and then I drink down salt water! GAAAAH!

"I hate this!" He sighed, and looked down at the water that perfectly reflected his appearance. "Aw, hell…I'd better find someone who can help me with this problem."

Xavier turned and put his arms on his waist, walking along the coast as he headed towards the dense forest. He contemplated on his arrival here, constantly cursing himself, his bad luck as well as the unknown voice.

"Grr…" He kicked a pebble as he walked. "Things couldn't get worse than this."

He really wished he hadn't said that.

A few seconds later, he stopped midway as he felt something wet hit his head. Groaning, he looked up, only to feel another raindrop hit him between his eyes, and an array of water struck anything below it.

"GYAAAH, I HATE THIS!"

Xavier covered his head as he ran with all his speed, trying to escape from the continuous rainfall and seek for shelter in a secluded place.

* * *

"Come on, quickly!"

Two pokémon were walking alongside each other, the smaller one jumping with excitement while the other one had a bored expression on his face.

"Arceus, we'll get there in time," he replied in a tired voice. "Besides, we can get there whenever we want!"

"The sooner the better," the other pokémon replied with an undertone of command. Her partner simply sighed. "Oooh, I'm so excited! I can't wait to get to Gem Town and meet Mrs—Oomph!"

She and her partner were knocked down by a speeding pokémon, and the three rubbed their rears in agony as they waited to identify each other…

* * *

"What…" – Xavier paused – "…the bloody hell hit me?"

"Excuse me, mister!" a voice perked up, full of anger and disbelief. " _You_ hit _us_!"

Xavier looked up to see a small, chick pokémon with stubby, downy, yellow wings. Her body was covered with an orange plumage and an orange/yellow crest on her head that resembled a flame. Her two thin legs and short beak was a shade of a very light brown, and the three toes in the front of her feet were dug in the ground along with the one toe behind. On the right of her forehead was a pink bow that would've looked cute on her if she wasn't having such an expression on her face: she was glaring at Xavier and her beak was just a metre away from his face. Xavier went through his mind and correctly identified the female pokémon in front of him as a Torchic.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Xavier genuinely apologised. "I-I didn't mean to—"

"Save your apologies for my beak," she replied with a ferocious snarl.

"Whoa, whoa!" Her companion interrupted the hostile situation as he held his hands up and separated the two. "Easy there, Yvette!"

He was bigger than the two and froglike, with yellow eyes surrounded by black markings. He had orange pouches on either cheek, and he showed off part of his wide and flat teeth as he gave a calm grin. A black mark encircled his upper arm and chest, with two white bands on his chest too. The pokémon's palms, which he saw up close, had three fingers with only the middle one orange and the other two black. His toes were similar to his fingers, except for the fact that there were no orange toes. He gave off a calming aura as he continued to stand between the two.

Xavier deduced him to be a Croagunk, and his guess was rightfully correct.

"Come on, Yvette!" the Croagunk reasoned. "You don't want to get bashed up before we reach the Guild!"

 _The…Guild? What were they going to a guild for?_

"Oh." The Torchic seemed to give up. "Alright, but you better hurry Zac!"

He chuckled. "Yea, yea, let's get going." He turned to Xavier and whispered. "Sorry for the trouble we caused ya. She's a bit short-tempered, but she's come around." The Croagunk winked at him as he tugged onto Yvette.

 _Should I travel with them?_ Xavier asked himself. _I'd better. I don't know anything about this world; I could use some help!_ He nodded in approval. _But…should I tell them that I am—err, a human?_ He shook his head after a minute. _No, they'll probably freak out and do some other stuff. No, I'd better just go with them._

He regained his calm and shouted, "Hey!"

"What is it?" Yvette snapped as she whipped around.

"Well, um…" – He fidgeted with his fingers – "…could I…come with you to this…guild?"

The Torchic looked like she was about to explode, but Croagunk simply waved his hand. "Yea, 'course you can come with us! And by seeing your expression and tone, it seems that you don't know what the guild is." Zac cleared his throat. "The Guild is basically an organisation of explorers perform rescue missions, tasks for other pokémon, fight outlaws or even hunt for treasure." His eyes glinted at that. "That's all we know."

"And speaking of which," Yvette butted in, "what do you mean by 'come with us'? Do you want to come with us to see the guild, or form an exploration team with us?"

"Huh?" Xavier asked in confusion as he tilted his head.

"Yes. While guilds are full of explorers who work together, many of the explorers work mainly in groups as small teams. These are exploration teams. When we join, Zachary and I will be our own exploration team."

"If you want, though," the Croagunk said, "you can be a part of our team."

"ZACHARY?!" Yvette sputtered.

"Well, the poor guy seems lost, and the more the merrier!" Zachary justified.

"Uh…" Yvette shifted nervously in her spot. "Okay then…"

"Okay, so we're a trio then!" Zac said enthusiastically. "Let's get a move on, shall we?"

The other two nodded, and they collectively walked towards Gem town, which held the famous Zairian Guild, which in turn was not too far away from their current position…

* * *

 **So, how was it? Slow? Fast? Tell me what you think.**

 **If you noticed, the initials of their names start with X, Y and Z. I thought it would be cool, so I did it!**

 **As always, review! I'll most probably update the day after tomorrow, or even tomorrow, so favourite and follow!**

 **'Kay bye!**


	2. Welcome to the Zairian Guild!

**So here is the chapter two of _Rings of Distortion_! Get ready for a...double upload!**

 **R &R!**

* * *

By the time the trio reached Gem town, they were _exhausted._

Yvette the Torchic was desperately trying to ignore Xavier, but she couldn't help it. Even while talking to Zachary, she would glance at the Treecko at least twice or thrice during their conversation.

Xavier didn't like Yvette either; in fact, the Treecko took a liking to the Croagunk and the latter felt the same. The two became friends they moment they united and formed a group.

Eventually, they reached the guild…or at least closer to the guild than before.

Xavier let out a gasp as he saw the hundred stairs in front of him, ready to be climbed upon. He shuddered by thinking of how much more they had to walk, and he almost collapsed if it hadn't been for Zachary handing him a bottle of fresh water.

"Here, drink this," he said as he pulled a normal sized bottle out of his sling bag. "It'll help."

"Thanks," Xavier replied, utterly grateful for the two strangers he hadn't known.

He chugged down the bottle of water in a matter of seconds, proving his thirstiness to his two companions. Yvette hmph-ed at this and simply walked up the several steps, as if trying to prove that she was tougher than the two.

It took about fifteen minutes of climbing for them to get to the top of the very small hill, but the sight they saw was amazing. In the middle was a tent, resembling an Azumarill, while at either side were two, average sized buildings that were about three storeys tall distanced from the enormous ten by a dome-shaped passageway.

"Here we go…" Zachary said as he swallowed; Yvette did the same, but she tried her best to hide it.

"Let's do this!" Taking in a deep breath, Zachary grabbed them both and rushed inside the tent despite the cries of protest.

"WAAAH!" the Treecko squealed as he went inside. The room inside was dark, with no visible light, and Zachary simply walked ahead.

"Well," he said, sounding disappointed, "I thought that—whoa, back off!"

Xavier's heart skipped a beat as he saw two eyes gleaming in the darkness, exuding a sinister feeling as the eyes grew larger, signifying that the creature was closing in on the trio. Xavier's instincts took over and his body stiffened, ready to release an attack and drive the pokémon away.

"Welcome!" a feminine-yet-masculine voice boomed. "You have two choices: state your business, or get out of here!"

Yvette perked up. "We're here to make an exploration team!"

"Is that so?" The eyes scanned them for a while before the creature spoke up again. "I don't know. You three seem to be a bit coy to me."

"'Coy'?" Yvette snorted. "We aren't coy, missy! You better talk about yourself first!" she fired.

The creature only chuckled. "Hahaha! You've got some nerve, ya tot! Alright, follow me," the pokémon said, and a ball of fire magically appeared out of nowhere, stunning everyone. Xavier looked closely and saw that the 'ball' was in fact a fist enveloped in fire, and it illuminated the area, revealing a Hawlucha to be the mysterious pokémon.

Although from weird memories, this Hawlucha looked tougher and bigger than others of her kind. She had a better physique and seemed to be taller than one metre. She had a determined look on a face, as well as one that said that she wouldn't take jokes kindly.

"Whoa," Zachary uttered, astounded by the Fire Punch. "How did you learn Fire Punch?"

"Aw, it's nothing." She talked about it so casually, as if she meant that it was a normal thing for anyone. "Anyway, we could use with some new chums around here. Follow me, lads."

"YES!" Yvette cheered, jumping up and down as they followed the Hawlucha deeper inside the guild.

They soon moved into an illuminated hall. Xavier analysed the new room, which was the first floor of the guild. Aside from several doors and ladders leading to other rooms, the only things of note were several bulletin boards displaying the guild's policies, and what he assumed was a receptionist at a desk near the back of the room. The receptionist, a Lopunny, was busy going through several papers. Then again, maybe she was a secretary, or something. Xavier didn't know much about these jobs and their titles, but he figured someone would fill him in later anyway.

"For starters, lemme introduce me," the Hawlucha said, starting a conversation. "The name's Vicky. The Guildmaster's second in command and the door guard. If anyone has any problems or doubts with this place or anything, come to me." She laughed. "Oh, I do more than just fight. I've been the Guildmaster's informer for years, and companion too…" she trailed off, later clearing her throat. "Now, if you'll follow me, we're going to meet the Guildmaster and talk about you special cases here, but I can take some time off the meeting. Come along, I'll give ya'll a tour of this place. Chop-chop!

"Now this," – she pointed to the passageway to her right – "is the building where all members of the Guild meet for the mornings and doing missions or stuff of those sorts. There are three floors there: the Assembly room, the Dining Room, which is on the second level and the Common room on the ground level. The Assembly room is on the first, where you will, as the name suggests, assemble for mornings or important announcements. Now, the Assembly room is also important for accepting missions, so I'll just lead you there."

Vicky then took a left turn and took them to the first building, showing them the Vicky gestured to the wall at the far end of the room, which several Pokémon were currently gathered about. The wall was divided into two sections, each covered in scores of papers, "As you can see, the left side of the job wall is called the job board, where you can accept simple jobs to complete. These jobs usually involve escorting someone, retrieving an item, or rescuing someone. On the right is the outlaw post, where we take requests to hunt down and capture wanted criminals. At the end of a successful job or outlaw hunt you'll receive some money or bounty as payment, and usually get some other form of reward. However, the guild is still a business, and since you work for us, that means that the guild will receive a large percent of your earnings to cover expenses, understood?"

"Right," they replied in unison.

"Now I don't need to take you to the Dining room now, it is plain boring." She snorted. Vicky led them back to the great hall they previously stepped in and she then informed them about the next building.

"Now that, there, is where everyone will be resting. There are many pokémon working for the guild right now, so we do have to accommodate for them and you will get the best rooms there are, but you'll have to share." She chuckled while the trio groaned. "Alright then, it's time to meet the Guildmaster."

He then took them around, showing them the mini training ground and the kitchen, before they walked to the topmost floor of the building.

"Here is the Guildmaster's room, lads," the Hawlucha informed as they collectively stopped in front of a metal door. There was a stylish 'V' cut on the door, and Xavier shifted in his spot. Vicky pulled out a key from her sling-bag and thrusted it in the keyhole; with a swift turn the door swung open and they rushed into the room.

Xavier took a quick notice of the room once he stepped in. There was a curved bookshelf filled with thick and tattered books, while a medium sized table was placed in the middle of the room. The wallpapers were a floral pattern with a blue background and the floor was carpeted with such soft material that Xavier felt like curling up immediately and falling asleep.

But something was weird. The Guildmaster was nowhere to be found!

"Oh, no," Vicky said as she face-palmed herself, "Not again…"

Xavier looked around, checking if the Guildmaster was a tiny pokémon, such as a Joltik or a Flabébé, but in vain. He then noticed that the floor was a bit messy, with a few pencil shavings near a foot of the table and the dustbin was upside down. Xavier frowned at such a sight, and then remembered that he was a neat-freak.

"And…now," Vicky muttered in a bored voice.

Right then, a blue entity swooped through the window and skilfully landed and then swirled on the floor with its yellow surfboard. The figure landed a few feet in front of the recruits and they collectively, excluding Vicky, gasped in surprise at the sudden entrance.

The Hawlucha simply sighed and said in a monotonous tone, "Well, lads, meet the prodigious Guildmaster Zairian…"

"Oh come on, Vicky," the Azumarill said as she took off her shades, "you don't have to be so jaded about it."

She then turned towards the shocked trio with a smile on her face. "Hello there!"

"Um…" Yvette nervously shifted about her spot and looked at the jolly Guildmaster. "…Hi…"

The ovoid creature was covered in primarily blue fur, with the lower half of her body being covered with white. On the blue portion were white, bubble-like spots of fur and on her head were elongated rabbit-like ears with red insides. The Guildmaster's circular, blue eyes were glinting with excitement and the tip of her short arms curled up to hold the black glasses. She walked over to the group until she was only a foot away from them.

"H-Hi…!" Xavier finally said, sounding _very_ nervous. "We've…uh, come to join your guild!"

"Yea!" Yvette added, jumping a foot off above the ground. "I'm Yvette, and this is my buddy, Zac!"

"And now, let me introduce myself properly too," the Guildmaster said. "My name is Madame Zarian Boniva!" She said it with such animation that the three flinched once she twirled her surfboard and put on her black glasses at the same time, giving a sparking smile. "But most people just call me Miss Zarian, or Guildmaster, or both. So," she said with less force, "you said that you three wanted to join my guild?"

"ABSOLUTELY!" they promptly answered.

"Cool!" The Azumarill placed her surfboard in a corner and took out her shades. "Here is your supply bag," she said as she tossed the ochre yellow sling bag towards them, which Yvette promptly snatched in her beak. "In it you'll find a map, a few Gravelrocks and six Oran Berries. For beginners."

"Wait a minute," Yvette said as she looked up from the bag. "What about our badges?"

"Those little things? You won't get them just yet," Zairian said casually as she looked away from the group.

"WHAT?!" The three blinked in confusion.

The Azumarill simply smirked. "You see, to be officially recognised by the guild, you must first prove yourselves, in this case complete a preliminary task."

Yvette had a look of realisation and defeat on her face. "Hmm…I guess it seems fair…"

"Of course it does." The Guildmaster then got up from her comfy chair and walked towards them with a bunch of letters in her hand. "Now, let's start with something easy for—"

"No!" Yvette glared at the Guildmaster. "Give us something tougher! That'll surely let us prove our importance in the guild."

Her friends simply gulped in shock and surprise.

Zairian tilted her head and frowned slightly, but then got her composure back. "Very well then, I hope…this will be more to your liking."

Zachary took the piece of paper from the Guildmaster's hand and brought it in the centre for all to see. On it was 'MISSING' written in bold red, with the background being the picture of a cuddly creature.

"The target is to find a group of Sentret named Chaz, Darwin and Otachi," the Azumarill explained. "They're a group of explorers that went missing about a week ago. According to witnesses, they'd last been seen around Razzmatazz Forest. We have reason that may lead you to believe that they have been kidnapped, so look out for attackers. Is that acceptable?"

"Well…Alright," Yvette answered after a few minutes.

"Alright then; go down there and be safe," Zairian said.

"Hopefully…" Xavier muttered so that no one could hear him.

* * *

 **So there it is. Hopefully the pace isn't too fast and everything is easy to understand. I want to make it slow because they've just reached the guild and blah blah blah.**

 **In any case, tell me what you guys think about this chapter, and by that I mean review! I'm going to see you guys next chapter, that means a few more seconds away since it's a double-upload...sigh...**


	3. The First Mission: Part One!

**And here is chapter three, uploaded right alongside chapter two. R &R!**

* * *

"Okay!" Yvette excitedly exclaimed. "Let's find those Sentret!"

"Wait." Yvette and Xavier turned around to see Zachary looking at them. "Shouldn't we first stock up on apples? I mean, if we get hungry then we're…dead."

"Yeah, Zachary's right," Xavier added, finding his courage to finally speak up. "So are there any shops nearby to buy some stuff?"

Yvette rolled her eyes. "Duh! Come on, let's get a move."

They had absolutely no trouble climbing down the stairs. Xavier almost grimaced at the thought of climbing up those countless stairs once again when they returned.

They finally reached Gem town. Yvette was full of excitement, and she directed them to the Kecleon Shop to buy everything they needed. The shop wasn't large, but quite big. A huge crate of apples were in sight of them, and glowing orbs with white aura spiraling inside them were placed in another. Xavier narrowed his eyes at the sight of circular discs the size of his head stuck to bands. They seemed to have a different color to each of them and each emanated a different feeling. The closest disc to him gave him spooky chills and unnerved him.

"Oh, fascinated at my stock of TMs, eh, boy?" a rough voice said.

At the sound of TMs, Xavier whipped towards the source of the sound and saw a purple Kecleon grinning at him. He found it weird that there were TMs in this world too.

"Yep." The Kecleon folded his arms and gave him a wink. "I alternate my stock every week, but now I've got Calm Mind, Protect, Shadow Ball and Substitute."

"Uh, I don't think we have enough money to buy any TMs," the Croagunk nervously said, "but do you have any food items?"

"Sure! Here we have apples, Aspear berries and a load of Sitrus berries." The other Kecleon, who was green, pulled out a crate of sweet smelling berries from underneath.

"I think we should buy Sitrus berries. They'll help a lot if we're ambushed by other pokémon," Xavier voiced his opinion.

"Yeah, Xavier," Zachary said with a smile. He then turned to the two Kecleon. "So we'll take…six? Yes, six Sitrus berries…and a few apples, in case we get hungry." The Kecleon handed him a pouch of Sitrus berries and a bunch of apples and Zachary paid him around eighty P.

"We hope to see you again!" the two Kecleon said in unison as the group set off.

"Oi, walk faster!" Xavier gasped as Yvette dragged the two southwest, gaining speed as every second passed. They passed through small water bodies, strips of dry grass and grassy patches of land until they reached their destination in no less than an hour.

"Phew!" Xavier wiped the sweat off his forehead as Zachary sighed in relief. "That was quicker than I expected. I thought that we would take another half an hour to get here, since it's pretty far from the guild," Zachary said.

"We're here, aren't we?" Yvette smirked. "Let's go!"

They then started to stroll deeper into the forest. It was dense, with lush trees and foliage present in the forest. Every leaf, bush, tree or any kind of foliage was a shade of pink, earning its name rightfully as Razzmatazz Forest. Several berries hung on trees, but they were too high for anyone from the group to pluck. They had to manage with the berries they had now.

"Whoever come in our way, they're gonna get burned by my Ember!" Yvette exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah," Zachary dismissed. "That's the only powerful move you have right now."

Yvette whipped around and smirked at Zachary. "You just wait till I learn Flamethrower. I'll roast you, and then let's talk!"

"Whatever." Zachary then turned towards Xavier. "So, Xavier…What moves do you have?"

"Huh?" His eyes widened. "M-Moves…?"

"Yeah, for instance, I've got Ember, Quick Attack, Growl and Low Kick," Yvette said.

"And I've got Astonish, Mud Slap, Cross Chop and Poison Sting! My dad was a Machamp, so I inherited his Cross Chop specialty," the Croagunk added. "So, what moves do you have?"

"Uh…" Xavier looked at the ground. "I don't…know…"

"…This can't be good," Yvette annoyingly muttered.

"Well, we can always help you figure them out!" Zachary smilingly remarked. "Now, let's go and rescue those Sentret."

Xavier embarrassedly nodded. How could he figure out his moves? He wasn't getting accustomed to this world. He simply wanted to go back to his world!

"Yeah!" Yvette jumped in the air, her pink bow still pinned to the right portion of her forehead. "Let's go and—Whoa!"

The Torchic hopped back as a Paras landed on the ground, rhythmically snapping his claws. He winced at the sight of three pokémon in front of him and immediately gave out a cry before saying, "Alert! Our territory has been invaded! My friends, strike them!"

"What—no! We haven't invaded your territory! We were just walking down—" but Xavier's explanations were cut off.

"Xavier, these are wild pokémon. They won't listen to us," Zachary said as he grew a serious expression on his face and took a battle stance.

At the sound of the Paras' cries, three more pokémon came down: two Butterfree and a Pidgeotto. They all had a wild expression on their faces and growled madly at the trio.

"Attack!" Yvette announced. She immediately jumped in the air and spewed a blanket of flames at a Butterfree, knocking her down to the ground and charring her fur. The bug element got up and flew at Yvette, biting her wing and the Torchic shrieked in pain. A final Ember then made the Butterfree unconscious and left only three wild pokémon to beat.

"Take this, you fiends!" Xavier saw Zachary scoop mud from the ground and forcefully throw it at the other Butterfree, slamming into his face and sending him a few feet back as he struggled to dust the remaining mud from his compound eyes. Zachary's fingers then grew a tad bit longer, glowed purple and turned pointier than before. He then stabbed the unaware Butterfree with his fingers and knocked him out too.

"Gaaah!" Xavier flew back as a powerful wind knocked into him. He groaned as he continued to feel the pain, and his eyes widened in fear as the wild Pidgeotto rammed into Xavier and pushed him back even further.

"Bwahahaha! That should teach you not to mess with us!" the Pidgeotto remarked. "Don't you dare enter our territory AG—Gaaah!"

Xavier crawled back in fear as crackling embers struck the avian pokémon's left wing, sending him screeching in pain. He then saw Zachary performing another Poison Sting before Yvette finally spewed another Ember at him, sending him out of his consciousness.

"Xavier! Are you crazy?" Yvette questioned with a glare. "Don't you know that we were in trouble? You could've at least performed an attack!"

"Now, Yvette. Don't be so harsh on him. He probably hasn't even been in a proper battle yet," Zachary calmed.

"Uh…What do we do to that dumb Paras over there?"

Xavier turned and saw the Paras trembling in fear at the previous massacre, according to him. He flinched as all three of them took a step towards him. "I-I didn't know! You can enter our territory whenever you want!" And he scurried away at that note.

"So much for being friends," Yvette sarcastically said. They decided to shrug it off and walked ahead after Yvette weakly kicked the fallen Pidgeotto.

* * *

Half an hour passed since they last defeated a pokémon. Xavier had finally discovered two of his moves, Quick Attack and Leer, and the latter was only possible because his enemy was a timid Joltik and he had no problem leering at her. Her companions, a Flabébé and a Rattata, we no match for the group and were knocked out easily. Xavier wiped the sweat off his head as he munched into another apple.

He finally realized that he hadn't eaten anything since morning. Zachary was happy to give his share of apples to him and Yvette reluctantly gave it to him, but out of sheer force by the Croagunk. There were now only two apples left, and despite how hungry Xavier would get later he would leave it for his other two companions.

"I can see something…" Yvette narrowed her eyes. "I think it's the Sentret!" They walked closer and the slight fog cleared out. Yvette chirped at that. "Yep, it's the Sentret!"

The three Sentret were as they would normally look, but were significantly thinner than normal Sentret. Their faces were pale and they were covered with dust and dirt, while a scar was seen on the belly of the center Sentret. They looked like they were about to pass out, and they immediately smiled at the sight of the trio as if they had just seen an oasis in a desert.

Their smile soon turned into frowns and then expressions of fear, and they gasped as they soon came a bit closer. "No! Don't come near us!"

Xavier furrowed his brow. "Why, what's wrong? We're here to save you!"

"N-No!" the one on the right shouted. "You'll get caught like the others!"

"What do you mean, 'caught'?" Xavier asked. He started to feel suspicious. And then his question was answered.

Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted in the air, and he turned and gasped to see the same thing happen to their friends. They were all covered in a pink aura, and were then brought together until they were caught in a psi net.

"Heeheehee!" a voice cackled. Xavier managed to turn and see a group of three walking towards them. One of them was surrounded by a similar aura like him, and they finally stepped out of the darkness to reveal themselves – a Kirlia, a Snover and a Kadabra. They all had a funny expression on their faces and looked like they were about to rip the innards out of the Sentret.

"Well done, Bajula!" the Kirlia said in a sadistic tone. "We've got another treat coming!"

"Shh…" the Kadabra replied, and Xavier understood that the compliment was headed to him. "Don't distract me from my conversation. Don't want me to lose us of our treat, don't you, Elsa?"

The Snover shuddered at a thought. He then grinned evilly and looked at his two friends. "Are you two ready to feast, my friends?"

"Of course!" the Kirlia exclaimed. She then laughed. "I can't believe that that people are coming to find those buffoons! We'll get a never-ending supply of food like this!"

"Eww!" Yvette remarked in a disgusted tone. "How can you idiots do this?! That's disgusting!"

"Hey! When you gotta eat, you gotta eat," the Snover reasoned.

It then struck Xavier. _What the fuck?! These pokémon are cannibals!_

"Think it's disgusting, don't ya?" the Snover asked upon seeing Xavier's disgusted expression. "But when you've hit rock bottom and don't have money or food with ya, you gotta give into this lifestyle."

"Keep quiet, Samson," Bajula, the Kadabra, shushed. "I'm going to kill them with Shock Wave now."

"Yeah, that's the way, Bajula!" Samson exclaimed in excitement. "You're the boss!"

"Say 'Goodbye World', kids," Bajula said, and he let out a burst of electricity that headed their way as he smiled sadistically.

* * *

 **So here's the thing - pokemon are not going to eat other pokemon. It's going to be like the games. They'll be eating apples, or berries, but NOT pokemon. That's in Xavier's world.**

 **So, I took the name Bajula from _Duel Masters,_ which was basically my favourite card game when I was a kid. I used to play it forever, I'm telling you! I still have loads of those cards left over, but I don't play with them any more.**

 **Goodbye childhood, hello exams!**

 **As always, tell me what you guys think about this chapter. I'm probably going to upload the next chapter by...Tuesday! Yes, Tuesday is the day.**

 **Kay bye guys!**


	4. The First Mission: Part Two!

**And here's chapter four. R &R!**

 **P.S.: No author's notes at the end. I...uh, was kinda lazy.**

* * *

 _Shit!_ Xavier's eyes widened as the electricity headed towards him.

In the little time he had left before the Shock Wave struck him, he struggled to break free from Bajula's psychic powers. He squirmed in his spot, tried to break his arms free and even tried to use one of his attacks, but to no avail. He couldn't let his friends get hurt. Not after all that they did for him – take him in, help him when he was in trouble, especially Zachary. It was then that he used all his strength to open his mouth and spew a fiery red flame that intercepted the shock and created a minor explosion.

"Wha—" The Kadabra's eyes stopped glowing blue and the trio was released from the psi net. They landed on the grassy ground with a thud, and a shock went up Xavier's spine as he felt pain for just a second. The dust cleared out and the cannibals were surprised at this.

"What the—"

"Take this, you idiots!" Yvette quickly ran towards Bajula and slammed into his torso, sending him flying back as he shook his head and winced from the pain. He slammed into the ground as a blanket of embers struck him in the face and charred his whiskers.

"Bloody hell, Xavier," Zachary muttered as he pulled the Treecko back to his feet. "You used Dragonbreath!"

"Yeah, but we don't have time to do all this. We've got to help Yvette!" Xavier exclaimed, and the Croagunk nodded.

"Damn you maggots! I'm going to eat you alive if it's the last thing I'll do!" Bajula yelled as he got back up to his feet.

What happened next was a mini-war. Bajula blasted a wave of psychic energy that struck Yvette and sent her flying, but Zachary thankfully caught her before she slammed into a tree. The Croagunk carefully avoided every blast of psychic energy that headed towards him.

"Eat this! Confusion!" The Kirlia let out a lose blast of psychic energy that almost struck Zachary. He jumped up, his fingers glowing purple, and he then stabbed the Kirlia repeatedly with his fingers until she crumpled and slumped down in defeat. The Croagunk gave a triumphant smirk before a powerful wave of psychic energy hit him, sending Zachary crashing down to the ground.

"I'll kill you!" Bajula shouted in anger. "You made use having our meal harder! I'll crush you!"

"I won't let you!" Xavier opened his mouth again to breathe a fiery red flame that soared towards Bajula. The Kadabra simply smirked and at the last second his silver spoon, which was tipped with blood, bent and the flame curved above him. The Treecko took a step back in shock.

 _Drat!_ Xavier cursed in his mind. _How can we defeat a target who can manipulate our attacks?!_

"Bajula you bastard…!" Xavier and Bajula turned back to see the three Sentret glaring at the latter, and they all stood on their tails. "You used us as bait to kill and eat innocent and helpless pokémon! You're dead!"

"Oh yeah?" Bajula simply smirked. "And what's going to—"

His words were cut off by Xavier crashing into his body. A Quick Attack was so fast that the pokémon could see where you were, and it helped in this situation to catch the ruthless Kadabra off-guard. Bajula's eyes widened as Xavier once again slammed into his torso, and then breathed fiery flames at him that scorched his yellow fur.

"Raaagh!" Bajula turned around to see the Sentret tackling him, sending him face first into the ground. He groaned in pain as another tackle struck him in the chest and his ribcage started to pain.

"H-Hey!" Xavier turned, leaving an angry Bajula duel three Sentret. He saw Yvette struggling against Samson the Snover, even though she clearly had a dual advantage. "I need help here!"

"I'm coming, Yvette!" Without thinking, he ran towards the Snover and slammed into his body. The sheet of ice that he fired was misguided and froze leaves above him. The leaves now grew heavy and broke away from the branch, coming crashing down upon Xavier and Samson. Xavier groaned in pain as Samson fired a punch that froze part of his face. It was clear that the Snover hardly dealt any damage from the frozen leaves.

He was about to spew another sheet of ice, but small flames struck against his body and singed the grass on his arms and even melted minute portions of the ice on his body.

"What the hell!" Samson threw his arms in the air of anger, giving Xavier the time to strike him with a Dragonbreath. He fell on his side to experience another Dragonbreath and he was knocked out after another Ember.

"Uh…" Xavier and Yvette hi-fived each other and walked towards a fallen Bajula.

"Wha…?" Bajula then turned to see three Sentret, a Torchic and a Treecko glaring at him, ready to attack. "Oh, fu…"

* * *

"I can't believe it! Cannibals in Razzmatazz Forest!"

They were now in the guild after a tiring walk from Razzmatazz Forest. Bajula, Samson and Elsa were thankfully unconscious, and they weren't going to gain consciousness anytime soon. The three Sentret and Zachary were keeping an eye on them, while Yvette and Xavier were talking about their first victory.

When Guildmaster Zairian came to know about the cannibalism and that pokémon had lost their lives, she was furious. Chief inspector Electro, a Magnezone, had arrived on the scene and had taken immediate action.

"Thank you for capturing these brutes and saving these missing pokémon!" Electro thanked. It nodded in gratitude.

Behind them, the three pokémon were kept in the clutches of three Magneton while a Klefki hovered above them, threatening to attack if they did anything sneaky.

"You're welcome, Inspector!" Yvette replied.

"My, my." Zairian seemed impressed. "Not only did you rescue these pokémon, but you also captured some pokémon! Excellent work, fellas!"

"Aww, what else can be expected from us?" Yvette replied arrogantly.

 _She's already gotten it to her head,_ Xavier thought.

"Either way, you've earnt your position at the Zairian Guild!" the Azumarill excitedly exclaimed.

"YES!" the trio collectively exclaimed out of excitement.

"So, before I hand out your badges," Zairian said, much to their disappointment, "you will have to do some paperwork, but before you do that or Electro hands out your reward, have you three decided on your team name?"

"Um…" The three looked at the ground nervously.

"You haven't decided your team name?" Zairian blinked.

It was then that Xavier's mind clicked. "Hey! What about Team XYZ?"

"Huh?"

"Well, it contains our initials! It stands for Xavier, Yvette and Zachary!"

Zachary's face broke out into a smile. "Hey, that's a good name! It has a nice ring to it!"

"Yeah!" Yvette nodded. "I like it too!"

"Then it's settled. Team XYZ it is!" Zairian nodded and put her blackglasses on to look cooler. "We'll make it official in a few moments. Now, Electro – you may present them with their reward!"

"Well, since it is unofficial, you will get a smaller award that usual, but added to the award for finding the Sentret you will get a bigger one!" The Magnezone chuckled robotically. "Lock, get the reward, please!"

The Klefki came to them with a brown pouch. She threw it in the air, and Zachary promptly caught it in his hands. He looked into it and saw it held three hundred and fifty P, who took it with gratitude.

"Wait…that's it? We caught three cannibals and saved three pokémon, but that's all we get?" Xavier blinked.

"Well, of course." Zairian looked at him with confusion. "Since you'll be working for the guild, we get ninety percent of your reward to keep the guild running!"

 _What the bloody hell?!_ Xavier blinked.

"Well, I guess we'll be off then!" Electro said. "Goodbye and we look forward to further assistance from you three!"

The Magnezone and its three pre-evolved forms left, carrying the three prisoners with them, with Lock, the Klefki, following behind.

Just as they were about to leave, they were stopped by the rescued Sentret, and the eldest one, Chaz, spoke up.

"Um…We would like to thank you for saving our lives…" He handed a strange bottle to the trio, which Xavier took.

He examined it closely. It had a nice curvature, and the bottle was sealed with a metal stopper. Inside it was a gas that changed color every now and then, and it gave a mysterious feeling.

"It's not much, but…We thought you guys may like it," Otachi said this time. "See ya!"

As the group of Sentret left, Xavier kept on holding onto the bottle until Zachary took him out of his trance.

"Hey, is everything alright?" the Croagunk asked. Xavier replied with a nod and the Guildmaster then spoke up.

"Then I suppose it'd be best if we made everything official!" She winked. "Then I can introduce you to the rest of the guild during supper! You probably haven't seen that many other guild members anyway, since most were probably out doing missions around the same time as you guys, so let's go. Off to fill out paperwork and then to fill our stomachs with food!"

"Yeah!" the four collectively said.

After all the necessary paperwork was completed, the trio sat at the right end of the main table beside Zairian, their food presented by the guild's head chef, an apron-wearing Chansey by the name of Polo.

Xavier was slightly shocked at the number of Pokémon who were in attendance at the tables, although he found it difficult to tell who were explorers and who were just simple employees of the guild.

"Okay, LISTEN UP!" Vicky the Hawlucha roared, silencing the chattering guild-members. With their attention attained, he smiled, gesturing to his superior, "Guildmaster Zairian has an announcement, so stay quiet and pay attention!"

"Thank you, Vicky," a smile graced the Azumarill's face as she got up. "We have good news, my guild members!" She gestured at the trio sitting to her right. "From today onward we will be joined by a new exploration team: Team XYZ! Go on, introduce yourselves!"

"Yep!" Yvette got up and proudly looked at everyone. "I'm Yvette, an awesome person to be with who is gonna kick butt and be a star!"

Next up was Zachary. "My name's Zachary, but people call me Zac. And I'm here to keep her in line." Most of the members chuckled at this.

"And I'm Xavier," the Treecko timidly said. "And…I'm y'know…" He sat down after that.

"Well, they've introduced themselves, haven't they?" Zairian smiled. "So now it's your turn!"

And so the introductions came. Amongst the teams, they saw a Rufflet and a Bidoof, a Growlithe and a Bulbasaur, an Exploud and a Flaaffy and many, many more.

Their dinner consisted of mainly apples, but also a variety of berry dishes. For starter, they had roasted Oran berries, which were delectable, and another dish that Xavier couldn't name but was tasty and to his liking. For desert they were going to have different berries that were crushed together and mixed into custard.

"So the newbies finally found their place, eh?" The newly formed exploration team turned to find a group that they'd actually head of – Team Claws.

Team Claws was a Silver Rank exploration team that was famous for mainly the numerous outlaws they had caught. Their leader, a Weavile with the name of Rachel, was ferocious and had countless, faint scars on her body. She had a sly glint in her eyes and she constantly used to look at the sharpness of her claws.

Her teammates, a Drilbur and a Sandslash, were just as fierce as her but the latter would first go to talk rather than fight. Rumour had it that the Drilbur was Rachel's half-sister, explaining their similar behaviour.

"Oh, don't mind her," the Guildmaster assured. "Rachel is quite known for her incompetence and creating arguments."

They laughed for a bit and continued to dig in their food, filling their stomachs to the brim and destroying their hunger.


	5. Another Mission and Some Trouble

_Should I? Or should I not?_

Xavier was curled up in his bed of soft straw as he decided whether to tell his friends about him being a human. A thousand thoughts raced in his head, especially ones that contained fragments of memories about his life as a human. An hour had passed since he last rested in his bed and he could constantly hear Zachary snoring while Yvette laid face-first on the floor.

He couldn't shrug the fact that he got transformed from a human to a pokémon. That's not something that happens every day. But that wasn't the reason to him not sleeping. The real reason which was pestering him was whether he should've told his newly made friends about his past. Should he? But wouldn't they find it weird that he was a human? Surely they would find him as an outcast. A million thoughts raced through his mind, but he then shook all of them. He decided to get some sleep; it would be a big day tomorrow.

He closed his eyes to find peace and sleep, but that night he had a dream…A strange one.

 _The night is cold. A drop of water splashes on a stalagmite, providing growth for a stalactite above it._

 _A strange creature hovers in the air, finding sleep in a bouncy bubble as she swirls in it. Her mind is carefree since she knows that the many Magikarp and other water elements swim peacefully in the vast lake, while the only sound that disrupts the silence is the occasional cracking of the million Venomoth eggs that are beginning to hatch and give birth to new life._

 _"_ _Oh, sweet glorious sleep…" the creature inside the bubble moans loudly, but it doesn't escape through the walls of the bubble. She flickers her long and elegant tail before she coos again. "After so long…"_

 _But her sleep is destroyed._

 _A strange creature, roughly her size, zooms across the long passageway that leads to her domain. The evil and power-hungry grin on her face shows his merciless nature._

 _He tries not to awaken his target. But a slight crash against the tip of a stalactite sends the almost-noiseless sound to her sensitive ears._

 _Her eyes open wide._

 _In a second, she slaps the bubble around her and it breaks, sending a popping sound that echoes in the cavern. The Venomoth stop laying any further eggs._

 _"_ _Hello, Lady," a male voice says._

 _"_ _What are you doing here?" she fiercely replies. "You should be at your own domain!"_

 _"_ _Oh, ho, ho!" he chuckles. Although a male, his voice is childish. "You know what I'm here for."_

 _Her eyes widen in fear. "N-No…I won't give it to you! The Father—"_

 _"_ _The Father is asleep!" he cuts off rudely, making her flinch. "It will be a long time before he awakens."_

 _"_ _I won't give it to you!" She glares at him madly. "I'll fight back! I don't know how you escaped them, but I'll stop your operation right here!"_

 _"_ _Ha!" He laughs once again. "Itsy-bitsy Lady Mew trying to beat…_ me… _? You lost last time, horribly!"_

 _"_ _Eat this!" The pink pokémon brings her palms together, forming an ectoplasmic sphere in the space. She then fires it towards her opponent, who skillfully dodges it._

 _"_ _You think a weak Shadow Ball is going to stop me?!" He cackles once again. "Well then…here is a return gift!"_

 _He opens his mouth and blasts a Shadow Ball at her, which advances towards her with such speed that Mew has no time to retaliate. She slumps down in defeat as the purple sphere rammed into her torso, and a sickening crack is heard as her head clonks against a rock._

 _Her enemy's eyes glints with excitement. He floats past her and towards the lake, finally diving inside and retrieving an object in the form of a question mark, but without the circle. "One down, three to go…"_

"WAAAH!" exclaimed Xavier as he woke up from his nightmare, his face covered in sweat.

"Ugh…" Yvette rolled in her sleep and groggily looked at the frightened Treecko. "Xavier…Go back to sleep…"

And with that, he cautiously rested his head in the bed of straw, not envisaging any dreams that night.

* * *

"RAAAAAAAWR!"

"WHAAA—What the—"

Xavier woke up to see the grinning face of an Exploud. He almost fainted in fear, but the Exploud's face then turned into a frown.

"This is the third bloody time I roared this morning," he said in a baritone voice, "and you wake up now?"

"Hey!" Yvette exclaimed as she looked at the Exploud. "You're, uh…"

"Whis, member of Team Strike Now with your wife Whitney, who's a Flaaffy," Zachary informed in a bored voice.

"Y-Yeah, that's what I was going to say!" the Torchic exclaimed as she managed a grin.

Xavier frowned at this. But it was acceptable, since he somehow knew that the two previously mentioned pokemon were in the same egg group. _Huh…was I a pokémon expert or something? Hmm…_ He'd heard of stranger pokémon romances as a human. Memories started to flock to him… _Wait, memories! Yeah!_ They soon started to disappear. _No…No! Don't go! D-Don't!_

"That's correct!" The Exploud interrupted his thoughts. "But anyway, you three have gotta go to the common room. That's the usual stuff!" He turned around and stomped his feet as he walked away. "Well, see ya lads downstairs!"

A few minutes later, they were in the meeting room, going through some silly chants which Xavier found pretty silly and stupid. They seemed to belong in a nursery classroom, but he didn't mind.

"Well said, my guildlings," Zairian approved. "Now, go on missions, catch outlaws, rescue pokémon and collect money!" Everyone laughed at that. "I, in any case, have something special to attend to, concerning our neighboring kingdoms!" She winked and set off to her office.

 _Kingdoms…?! I thought there were regions, and a government! Does that mean this is a kingdom too?_ Xavier grew worried. _Oh, no…I don't know anything about this world! Damn it!_ He turned to see Yvette and Zachary talking about their next mission. Yvette was constantly denying Zachary's choices while the Croagunk was drawing a deadpan look on his face.

"Hey, Xavier!" Zachary called out, gaining the Treecko's attention. "Let's go!"

Xavier immediately followed the duo to the assembly room and walked to the left side of the room that was filled with numerous papers. Zachary continued to stare at the board while the other guild members snatched missions, happily grinning at the job as they walked away.

"Faster, Zac!" the Torchic said. She was now growing impatient at the Croagunk's speed. "At this rate there won't be any job for us!"

"Wait a minute, Yvette!" Zachary hushed. He looked closer and then his eyes widened. "Aha! Here it is!"

He jumped a foot above the ground and snatched a piece of paper, then showing it to his other two teammates. Xavier nodded in approval while Yvette simply grimaced at it.

"What the hell is this, Zac?" Yvette asked, clearly annoyed. "What the bloody hell is this? Retrieve a _spoon_?!"

"Well, it says here that the pokémon is a female Alakazam, and that without her spoon she won't be able to concentrate her psychic energy. And the reward that we get is…" the Croagunk looked above, as if calculating something, "…around sixty P and a handful of items. I say we go!"

"Pfffft!" Yvette scoffed. "Zac, that mission's just lame."

"Well, we are helping someone," Xavier interrupted, voicing his opinion and making the Torchic look at him. "I mean, we're an exploration team, we've got to help pokémon!"

"Well, alright…I guess…" Yvette finally agreed. "Where's the location?"

"The place is called…'Gooey Hills'," Xavier answered.

"Then let's go!" Zachary and Xavier exclaimed in unison. "Team XYZ to the rescue!"

* * *

"Ugh…"

Xavier gasped for breath as he chugged down another bottle of cool water. He, Zachary and Yvette were coated in sweat, tired at fighting off feral and wild pokémon. The Goomy were very protective about their territory, and were proving a difficult battle, since they were dragon elements. They had a varied move pool, but Xavier's repeated Dragonbreath finally knocked some sense into them.

Another problem was the varied poison element pokémon. A large Arbok was about to pin them down and rip their head off, but a kind-hearted group of Slowking and Slowpoke helped them against defeating the enormous serpentine pokémon. They further walked up the hill, each step proving difficult.

Then they started feeling hungry. Their stock of apples started to deplete, and now all they had was an apple and a few Oran berries. Xavier had to resist the urge of sneaking his arms into the backpack and munch on the Oran berries.

Harsh sunlight blinded their vision as they reached the summit of the hill. In the middle of the summit was a silver spoon stuck in a blob of purple sludge.

"There it is!" Yvette sighed in relief as she sped towards the sludge, trying to pick up the silver spoon. But she was taken aback when the purple sludge grew in size and revealed itself as a vile Grimer!

"Whoa!" Yvette jumped back and accidently let out a blanket of flames that struck the Grimer. The poison element cringed in slight pain as she then turned towards her attacker, and then let out an ear-piercing cry that echoed in the air. Suddenly, blobs of purple, smelling sludge crawled towards them, with a large flat puddle that advanced towards them. They all grew in size to reveal many more Grimer, while the leader was a smelly and big Muk!

"What the—there was no description of this in the piece of paper?" Zachary exclaimed.

Yvette pulled out the paper and gasped in shock at what he saw. "Shit!" he yelled. "This was an S ranked mission!"

"We're screwed!"

"Oy," the Muk said in slurred speech. "Why did you com 'ere?"

"We just wanted that silver spoon, and then we'll get going," Xavier explained, trying to get out of the situation.

"NO!" His voice boomed across the stage. "We not give you Spoon! It make psychic element strong! We weak to psychic element…Psychic kill poison!"

An idea clicked in Xavier's mind. "B-But none of us are a psychic type!" The Muk tilted his head in confusion at the last word. "Err, I mean element! _I_ need it! I'm a grass ty—element!"

"You say truth?" the sludge pokémon asked.

"Yes!" Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"YOU LIE!" Xavier groaned in annoyance at hearing this. Apparently the Muk could read his opponent's mind. "We no give you spoon! You fight for it, and then we give spoon!"

"If you say so," Xavier mumbled, and immediately fired fiery red flames that struck the Muk between his eyes. The fire and dust cleared out, but the Muk was hardly damage. He gave an expression of what looked like a smirk.

"My babies, ATTACK!"

"Shit!"

His instincts took over and he immediately jumped in the air, avoiding a Grimer that was going to crash into him. He looked down to see another Grimer looking at him with hopeful eyes, as if wanting to catch him, but Xavier smirked before breather another set of fiery flames that kept him hovering above the air till the flames died down.

Zachary was doing a good job with Mud Slap. He was constantly scooping up dirt and wet mud from the ground and then hurling it at his opponents, obscuring their vision and letting them absorb the mud in their sludgy body as they grimaced in pain at the effects. Apparently the mud distorted their cellular structure and was very effective against knocking them down.

Yvette was so pumped up that she was continuously breathing embers at her opponents. The Grimer did not mind them, but after some time the heat started to liquefy their body and turn their sludge into thinner substances. She kept on doing this until one of the Grimer was nothing but a purple, sticky puddle on the ground.

"You no defeat us! Attack, my children! Use Sludge!" the Muk announced.

All of the Grimer came together and belched unsanitary sludge from their bodies. They joined together and formed an enormous blob of poison that then exploded upon the Muk shooting another blob of sludge that struck into the other one. The sludge flew in different directions and finally struck Xavier, coating him with poison and keeping his legs stuck to the ground, disabling him to move.

"Grr…" Xavier growled.

"Hold on, Xavier!" Zachary said as he hurled another scoop of wet mud. An oblivious Grimer swallowed it and started gaining weird expressions on her face, until she finally slumped to the ground and formed another puddle of sludge.

"We'll fight them off!" Yvette assured, but with so many Grimers and a large Muk, it was difficult to believe.

* * *

"Who took the retrieval mission at Gooey Hills?!"

The Guildmaster burst into the Assembly room, looking distraught and angry. The guild members flinched when she entered and Vicky walked to her.

"What happened, Zairian?" the Hawlucha asked, concerned.

"Gooey Hills…mission…" were the only words that came out of her mouth.

"Gooey Hills…? Why would there be…Oh, no…" Vicky gaped at Zairian.

"Quick! We need to get there!" Zairian snapped her fingers. "Vicky, if an exploration team has reached the summit, who knows if they'll be alive the time we reach there…"

"Don't worry, Zairian," Vicky assured. "We'll save them."

* * *

"I…can't…hold on…any…longer!" Xavier exclaimed as the sludge restrained his movements even further.

The battlefield was a massacre. Grimer were lying on the ground, thinned down to a soupy substance, while their evolved form kept on absorbing each and every fallen Grimer into his body and grew bigger every time he performed this.

"Take this, you crackpots!" Yvette blasted another set of embers that struck an already defeated Grimer who attempted to get up, poisonous vapors rose from the body of the Grimer.

"Sh-Shit, that's Poison Gas!" The Torchic jumped in the air and continuously flapped her wings in the air, attempting to blow the poison away from her. She fell to the ground and then jumped back up to perform the same task, but this time breathed in a few vapors and choked on them.

A purple energy crackled around her body, indicating her status. She was poisoned, and was finding it harder to focus on enemies and struggled to coordinate her movements. She coughed as she spat on the ground, wetting the floor.

"Yvette! Gaaah!" Xavier breathed another Dragonbreath that struck a Grimer not far away, but he was getting weaker by the second. The poison was trying to seep in his body, but his skin wouldn't allow it, and the poison was now trying to diffuse through his skin. He grimaced at the thought and set off to trying to break free from the sludge.

"We kill you! First Croagunk, then Torchic and then green Treecko!" the Muk exclaimed. He then swirled in his spot, throwing blobs of sludge from his body as he spun. The poison struck Yvette, but Croagunk skillfully managed to evade each and every one of them.

"Come and get me…FAGGOTS!" Zachary taunted. The Muk roared in anger and advanced towards Zachary, but he was a step ahead. He sharpened his fingers and pokémon them in the Muk's eyes, making him roar in pain at the trick. Who knew that Zachary could fight so dirty?

The Croagunk then continuously stabbed his opponent, and although it hardly dealt any damage it further enraged the Muk. Zachary then delivered a Cross Chop that sliced the Muk's body.

"Screw you!" Yvette's eyes glowed red as she spewed a spiraling flame at the two Grimer in front of her, and it struck each of them before knocking each out. She had finally learnt Fire Spin.

"Whoa—WHOA!" Yvette blasted another Fire Spin, but this time at the ground, once she saw a ginormous blob of poison heading her way. The Fire Spin projected her upwards and the sludge crashed into the ground, forming a small puddle of sludge.

"We kill you!" The Muk belched another mass of sludge. Yvette dodged it once again before finally succumbing to a Grimer's clutches. She screamed in agony as she tried to break free, only making the Grimer tighten the grip around her.

 _No…!_ Xavier cringed. _It can't end like this…I just came to this weird world!_ He fussed around his spot. _Think, Xavier, think! What'll help to destroy those buggers? Ground type attacks? But Zachary knows only Mud Slap, and Yvette knows Sand Attack, but it won't help…_ An idea formed in his mind and he opened his eyes wide. _Wait, Sand Attack!_ Sand _Attack! And she's a…Oh, yes!_

"Yvette!" The Torchic managed to turn and look at Xavier with sore eyes. "Try to destroy that Grimer and then use Sand Attack on the Muk!"

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him with an expression of puzzlement. "What are you—?"

"JUST DO IT!" he screamed, almost begging.

"A-Alright…!" Yvette squirmed in her spot and managed to look face-to-face against the oblivious and smiling Grimer. With a fierce expression, she scorched the poison type with a powerful, spiraling flame that struck it between its eyes. The Grimer wriggled in pain and loosened its grip around the Torchic, and she jumped out and continued to burn the Grimer. A few minutes passed by and the Grimer melted into a thin, purple pool.

"Now use Sand Attack!" Yvette nodded at Xavier's command and dug her claws into the ground. She forcefully pulled out her leg and hurtled a handful of sand towards the Muk, and the sand advanced towards him.

"NOW BLAST FIRE SPIN ON THE SAND!" Xavier yelled.

Yvette flinched at the scream, but still listened to the Treecko's command. She opened her beak and a powerful, spiraling flame advanced towards the sand and the Muk. The flames engulfed the sand particles, confusing the Muk at Yvette's tactic, but when the flames disappeared the sand was replaced by glass shards.

"Whoa!" Yvette exclaimed in awe.

The Muk didn't have a chance at reacting. The glass shards struck him on the face, embedding them into his acidic and poisonous sludge body. He roared in pain as a weak, green liquid oozed out, and Xavier grimaced at the sight of Muk blood.

"Shit!" Yvette exclaimed in panic. "I-I just drew blood out from a _Muk_!"

"I kill!" the Muk threatened as he weakly pointed a sludgy arm at Yvette. "I kill you! My poison babies, atta—huh?"

Xavier turned his head to see nothing but fainted Grimer or puddles of thin sludge. He inwardly grinned at the fact that they only had the Muk to defeat, but the poison enveloping him made him cringe. He had to get rid of this muck.

"AAAAAH!" the Muk yelled. He then whirled around his spot, sending speedy blobs of poison that struck Zachary and Yvette. The cried out in pain as they were plastered to the floor and the Muk evilly grinned as he crawled towards Xavier.

"You die…NOW!" Xavier shut his eyes at the oncoming attack. _Any minute now…_ But it never came.

What he saw, instead, was the Muk being thrashed by a fierce warrior, and Xavier could see the Muk pleading for his life as the pokémon continued to soundly thrash him.

"Take this, you filthy maggot!" The pokémon threw another punch at the Muk. He slumped to the floor and his eyes rolled upwards.

The next thing he saw was a blue figure hopping over him and blasting a jet of water that struck the Muk. The Muk got up once again, this time groggily, and jumped on the blue figure and engulfed it with his sludgy body. The next second, orange rays of light seemed to pour out from the Muk's body, and a powerful orange beam made the Muk explode and destroy him into tiny bits of goo. The remains of his sludgy body rained down on the ground and they started to squirm after some time.

Xavier rolled his eyes in pain as his vision went hazy – the poison was seeping into his body. It would be only a matter of minutes before he would pass out, or worse, die. He groaned weakly in pain once he heard familiar voices, as if trying to call for help, and then he entered the realm of unconsciousness.

* * *

"Where…am I…?"

Xavier opened his eyes to see a blurry sight, but a few blinks made his sight accustomed to the light in the room. He forced himself up, but his arms were weak and his head felt heavy. Wasn't he dying? What happened after that? He turned to see familiar face, particularly an angry on that scared him out of his wits.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Zairian exploded in disbelief. "YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN YOURSELVES KILLED!"

"We're sorry, Guildmaster…" Xavier identified the voice as Zachary's, and the Treecko turned his head to see the Croagunk looking at the ground in fear.

"It was fortunate that I saw the job at Gooey Hills soon enough and that Vicky and I came to save your sorry bottoms," the Azumarill said in a _very_ informal tone.

"Aw, come on, Zairian," Vicky calmed, putting a hand on the Azumarill's shoulder. "They're just kids; they didn't know that a Muk clan lives there. I don't think they even saw the team ranking," – Zachary flinched – "so they couldn't possibly know."

The Guildmaster sighed. "Alright…You will not be punished, but don't do missions that are out of your ranking! You will still not be receiving you reward, however."

Xavier and his friends accepted this. The nodded quietly before Yvette spoke up.

"Guildmaster," she asked warily, "what happened to the Muk? I mean, you destroyed him with some weird but powerful attack, didn't you?"

The Azumarill smiled. "He didn't die. Muk are interesting creatures, Yvette. He will still be alive in an odd way, alien to most living organisms. By being destroyed, they—"

"Separated into many new Grimer," Xavier completed, stunning everyone including himself. He was surprised that he knew that knowledge, and it felt like he instinctively spoke up. "So, those tiny bits of sludge were small practically defenseless new Grimer, but it's still possible for them to come together and form a larger Grimer or probably even a Muk," he added, surprising everyone further. "But it would be a completely different organism than the one that was destroyed. Fission like that destroyed the original's identity, giving birth to new Grimer. So basically, the Guildmaster just created many new organisms. That's incredible."

"Yes," the Guildmaster agreed softly, astounded. "Yes it is."

 _How the hell did I know this?_ Xavier asked himself. _Who the hell was I in my past life?_ Memories flocked to him once again. Memories of him mixing chemicals and wearing a white coat… _That's it! I was a pokémon professor's intern! Yes! Finally, I get to know something about myself as a human…Wait, no! Not again!_ He mentally cursed himself when his fragments of memories started to disappear. Oh, how he longed to know more about his past life…

"…But anyway, you three managed to keep up with the Muk and Grimer for so long!" Zairian clapped her hands furiously in excitement. "I think it'll be just a few more missions before your team gets promoted to the Bronze Rank."

"Really?" Zachary asked in disbelief. Xavier frowned, since he didn't know what they were talking about, but it looked like something important considering that Yvette's eyes were gleaming with awe too.

"Now don't ponder on it. I think you all should go to your cabin! I'm afraid you won't be able to do any more missions for the day, considering your situation now," Zairian said. The three thanked the Guildmaster once again before setting off to their cabins.

* * *

The rest of the day went well. Since they weren't able to go and do a job, they helped the guild members by carrying out chores. Yvette fussed about cleaning dishes, but Xavier agreed to do her task. They spent the rest of the day helping the guild members a chatting with them.

For dinner, they had the same set of berry dishes, which Xavier adored. He wondered if he could get the recipe back to his own human world.

"G'night, Zachary, Xavier," Yvette said as she yawned. She slowly blinked her eyes before curling into her bed of straw, and she wheezed softly before finally going to sleep. Zachary gave a sleepy look before he too dozed off, leaving only Xavier awake.

After a few minutes, when it was clear that his companions had fallen asleep, he sighed. He looked at the peaceful faces of the Torchic and the Croagunk, not having a care in the world. "What do I do?" he uttered to himself, frustrated. "I don't know anything about my past, except for what I did and the fact that I was a human. Why was I brought here?" He narrowed his eyes. "I won't get any answers like this. I'll just have to bide my time and wait for some solutions."

The Treecko bent low and laid on his bed of straw. He put his arms behind his head before turning to his left and curling into a ball. "Better go to sleep…"

But as soon as he fell asleep, he found himself in a color-filled void. He turned around to see himself trapped in a dome-like structure, and he grimaced at the new place he was in.

"What the…" he muttered, but a familiar voice interrupted him.

"H-Hello?" the voice said in a raspy tone. "C-C-C-Can you h-hear me?"

* * *

 **...and I think that's the right way to end it. Ooh, don't you just love cliffhangers?**

 **I'm really sorry for not updating in so long, it's just that I had loads of other work to do (yes, I have a life). I did say that I'd be updating on a Tuesday that we already passed. Next chapter will hopefully be on the coming Sunday!**

 **Xavier's dream - I can only tell that the evil guy is one of the cutie-legendary pokemon. Nothing else, till the time comes!**

 **...And now for the review replies (yes, this is going to be a regular thing from now on and I'll try to do as many as I can)!**

 **November Red Angel: Yes, I made Yvette do that to show more of her character at first. But don't worry, cannibalism isn't going to be seen any more in this fic (hopefully), except for, probably, a few mentions of it.**

 **Guest: No they don't. I mentioned (I think) that pokemon will eat stuff like those apples and berries rather than they're own kind...Just think of them as humans. Do humans eat humans? No they don't.**

 **Lotto the Blue Mage: Yes, Bajula was cliched villain. I'm trying to focus more on Xavier and Yvette rather than Zachary because I feel that the two could have more of character development and that I'm trying to give Yvette a greater and more prominent character than her companions. You'll see more of her and her actions in the future, too.  
Team Claws is going to play a major role, something like a rival exploration team similar to Team Skull in PMD Time/Darkness, but without the truly evil characteristics.**

 **And I think that's it. A big thanks to people who reviewed, and if I didn't reply to your review it just meant that I didn't have enough time or that I didn't have anything to say. Don't feel ignored, because I most certainly go through what your written for what I've written.**

 **So I'll see you guys on Saturday! Goodbye, fellow Fanfiction-ers(?) !**


	6. Mysteries Uncovered - Well, Partly

"H-Hello?" the voice said in a raspy tone. "C-C-C-Can you h-hear me?"

Xavier flinched. _This voice…I've heard it…It's the voice that freaking questioned me! I know it!_

"Damn this blasted connection!" the voice cursed. "I guess I-I'll have to terminate it again…!"

 _W-What?!_ Xavier narrowed his eyes. _No! Don't go! I need answers!_ He began to open his mouth, sure that no noise would come, but he did make a sound. "Wait, don't go! I can hear you!"

"WHAT?!" He heard it gasp. "R-Really?! OH, YES! SWEET VICTORY!" it cheered.

"Uh... Well, now that I can hear you, what did you mean by 'connection'?" Xavier swallowed nervously.

"Huh?" It paused. "Oh, you heard that? Hahaha," it laughed sheepishly. "Well, if you must know, I've been struggling to talk to you in your sleep ever since you got your new body. The problem was your new body. I could connect to you perfectly fine when you didn't have a body, but I failed to account for any complications you having a body would cause, so I couldn't talk to you. I had to do some readjustments, heh…

"But," it added, "The important thing is that you have found the Keimusho Bottle!"

"W-What?" he asked, confused at hearing those words. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, so you don't know about them…" The voice sounded disappointed, and he heard the sound of a tongue constantly clicking against the roof of a mouth. "Looks like I'll have to take the trouble of explaining it to you…

"The Keimusho Flask is what those Sentret gave you," it explained, and Xavier's eyes widened in shock.

"Y-You mean that bottle-thingy?"

"Yes. I didn't expect you could find it so easily, but nevertheless, it is a good thing." The voice chuckled. "Now, all I can tell you to do is keep it safely. Keep it with you at all times, because if you lose it then all hope is lost. It can be the end of the world, for all we know," the voice casually said.

Xavier's heart skipped a beat. "Wait, what?! The end of the world…? What're you talking about?"

"The Keimusho Bottle contains untold and limitless power," the voice explained. "However, one must first obtain all four Infinity Fragments to unseal the Bottle and obtain the power."

Xavier narrowed his eyes. "Infinity Fragments…? What the hell are you talking about?!"

The voice cursed. "I do not have time now. I will have to leave, and I do not want to be discovered. Time is short, and I have to leave."

"What?!" Xavier's eyes widened. "But you can't! I finally get to understand you! You can't just leave, and just when you've given me precious information!"

The voice sighed. "I'm sorry, but time is precious. You will learn more…" Already he could feel the colours fading and the voice becoming nothing but a small whisper. "It was a pleasure, Xavier…"

* * *

"GET UP, YA CHUM!" Whis roared.

"WAH!" Xavier shot up in a start, his eyes wide. "Heh, heh…" He breathed heavily as his friends got up in a calmer fashion. Just then, he gasped. His mind raced over everything he had been told last time, even though it had been very little; the Keimusho Bottle, the Infinity Fragments, and the end of the world. The last bit particularly bothered him. _Why is this happening only to me? I'm the one who gets transformed into a pokémon, I'm the one who faces cannibals on my first mission and I'm the one who almost dies on my second one!_ Then _some idiot bastard tells me about the end of the world and it's up to me to do something about it. Curse my life!_ He gritted his teeth in frustration and stomped his foot. _I'll have to keep listening to that dick of a voice if I want to keep living…_

As he made his mind he followed his teammates to the meeting room, where he finished all his morning routines and then made his way to the job room. Zachary and Yvette were chatting while Xavier was lost in deep thought, wondering about his situation. "Arceus…"

"…and this time let's see the mission ranking before choosing a job." Zachary's stern voice brought Xavier back into the real world. He shook his head and nodded moments after the Croagunk's words sunk in.

"I think this one should do it!" Zachary exclaimed in his baritone voice as he took a piece of paper from the board. "Let's go to the Foggy Cave!"

Yvette raised an eyebrow. "Foggy Cave?" she asked in bemusement. "That's so lame, Zachary." The Croagunk glared at Yvette until she sighed and looked down. "Fine, we'll go there. What do we have to do?"

Xavier took the paper from Zachary and looked at it before he informed, "We have to get a Shinx's ball. Apparently he was playing there with his big brother and he forgot it ther—Oomph!"

Xavier rubbed the back of his head and turned to look at the pokémon who bumped into him. He whipped and saw a Drilbur looking haughtily at the trio. The Drilbur stared at them for a while before smirking and turning to the board.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Yvette snarled as she softly kicked the Drilbur on her knee, earning a dangerous glare from her.

"What the hell, kid?" she exclaimed. "Why don't you tell your buddy to look where _he's_ going?"

"Why, you—"

"We're sorry, Miss Kuronova," Zachary interjected as he slapped a hand to Yvette's mouth. "We really don't want an argument right now."

The Drilbur thought for a while before she reluctantly nodded and walked towards The Outlaw Post. However, Xavier and Yvette stared at Zachary with wide eyes and half-opened mouths.

"What?" the Croagunk questioned. "Did you expect me to help Yvette here turn the argument into a battle? Kuronova is a brilliant fighter, and you really don't want Team Claws on our rears. Team Claws is a _Bronze Rank_ team," he added, emphasizing on the rank.

"Let's just forget about this episode," Xavier said as he started to walk towards the exit of the Guild.

In the end, they had a successful mission, and the reward was good enough to prevent Yvette from having an angry mood for the rest of the day.

* * *

"How could someone be so upset over a lost ball?" Yvette asked out loud before she took another bite from the big apple.

Zachary smirked. "You seemed pretty upset when you lost Poofie," he mumbled.

"Hey!" she yelled out in annoyance. "I was a kid, okay!" Her cheeks turned red in embarrassment.

"So was Electra!" the Croagunk replied in an equally loud voice, referring to the Shinx.

"Wait a minute…" Xavier scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as the trio walked down the dirt path. The sound of leaves rustling echoed as the cool breeze drifted through the trees and the air. "What's 'Poofie'?"

Zachary chuckled. "Well, Yvette had a plushie of a Swablu that she called Poof—YEEOW!" he suddenly bellowed in pain while Yvette smirked victoriously at her friend.

"Why did you have to kick me in the shin?!" Zachary exclaimed in shock while Xavier chuckled at the two.

"I did that to stop you from talking about Poofie!" Yvette roared back.

"…said GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!" they heard a voice bellow in anger.

Zachary, Yvette and Xavier all looked around with narrowed eyes to locate the source of the voice – it was childish, but it seemed to be that of a bully. As curious as they were, the trio walked away from the dirt path and deeper into the small forest until they reached a small clearing that was connected to a brick road.

"B-But our mother gave it to us!" a Cacnea bawled.

"I don't care!" Xavier's eyes roved until they settled on a young Tyrogue, who delivered a blow on the top of the Cacnea's head and sent her reeling in pain. The Tyrogue too gave a hint of a wince, probably hurt by the spines on the Cacnea's skin.

"No we won't!" a Chimchar shot back as he stood up to the Tyrogue and glared at him. "And don't you dare hurt my sister again!"

"And what will you do, Erasmus?" the Tyrogue taunted as he took a step towards the Chimchar. "Will you go crying to Mommy like you did last time?"

Xavier, Yvette and Zachary watched in amusement as the Chimchar – Erasmus, Xavier corrected – stunned the Tyrogue with a Fire Punch, causing the fighting type to topple over to the ground. However, the Tyrogue quickly jumped back up to his feet and countered with Mach Punch. A quick scuffle broke out, but in the end the Tyrogue finished off Erasmus with a rough Tackle that sent the Chimchar slamming into a tree. The Cacnea, full of fear, cowered while the Tyrogue snatched the leather bag hanging around her arm and slung it over his body.

"We've got to stop that thief!" Xavier called out as he ran towards the Cacnea with Zachary and Yvette right behind him. The Croagunk ran towards Erasmus' aid while Yvette and Xavier stopped once they were near the Cacnea. Zachary quickly forced a few Oran berries down Erasmus' throat while Xavier tried to converse with Cacnea.

"Are you alright?" Xavier asked immediately.

The Cacnea nodded slowly. "Runt always takes our money whenever he sees us. And when we try to talk to our parents about it, he conveniently beats us up."

"Don't worry; we'll get your money back. Just stay here, okay?" The Cacnea nodded.

Xavier frowned as he saw the Tyrogue already far from him, but he figured that his he and his teammates would easily catch up to him. With no time to lose, the treecko sprinted towards the Tyrogue with all his strength.

The Tyrogue's eyes widened as he saw Xavier right behind him, and so he put all of his energy into his legs that carried him a long way before he tripped against a pebble on the ground, grazing his chin and roughly rolling for a few moments before he came to a halt.

"Give the money you stole!" Yvette roared in anger as she kicked the Tyrogue in his stomach with her talons.

Xavier smirked as Zachary calmed the Torchic down before he turned to the fighting type with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for her – she gets carried away sometimes." He shot her an angry look. "Anyway, my colleague here forgot to say please. So can you please hand over the money you…borrowed?"

Instead, the Tyrogue spun on the ground and kicked Zachary on the lower part of his leg, causing the Croagunk to be swept off his feet and land on the hard ground on his back. The action momentarily stunned the three, allowing the Tyrogue to get up and motion to run, but he was stopped as Xavier aimed a Dragonbreath at his feet.

"You're not going anywhere, punk!" Yvette smirked in confidence as she walked over to him, giving the baby pokémon condescending glares as she circled him. "Now, hand over the bag." The Tyrogue gritted his teeth as he reluctantly handed over the satchel, Xavier taking it in his hands while Zachary hopped back on his feet. "Now, piss off."

"You'll pay for this…" The Tyrogue was giving them looks that said that he was on the verge of crying, and he suddenly started to bawl for a moment before he let out a battle cry, forcing the rescue team to take their battle stances. _This is going to be easy,_ Xavier thought, but that was before three more figures butted into the scene, looking oddly familiar to the Tyrogue.

"What happened, Runt?" Xavier eyed the speaker, who had five blunt protrusions on his head and extensions resembling pads on his shoulders. He appeared to be wearing a purple tunic and kilt as well as red boxing gloves and light purple boxing shoes, along with a frown on his face. "Are these three annoying you?"

Xavier turned to the next creature – a humanoid pokémon with an ovoid body. Lacking a distinct neck and head, his upper torso had almond-shaped eyes with black rings around them and appeared to lack a mouth and nose. Primarily brown, he had cream coloured, segmented arms and legs, with three fingers and three clawed toes respectively. His hands and feet were connected to the main body with a something that resembled a coiled spring, giving Xavier the impression that he could contract and stretch out his arms freely.

Xavier then looked at the third pokémon, one that was just an inch taller that the Tyrogue. His main body was spherical and mostly blue with a brown triangular patch on his chest. He had short legs with white bands near the hands and feet. The feet were large, blue and had a circular brown pad on the underside. He had a skinny brown tail that ended with a blue sphere with a spike on it. His head was round and brown with flat, curved extensions on either side and a single spike on the top, making his head resemble a spinning top. He had beady black eyes and spherical hands with no digits, and Xavier's lips twitched at the thought of him not being able to pick up anything.

Then it hit him. They were the Hitmons, a family tree that evolved from a Tyrogue depending on his stats. They were extremely brutal when it came to battles and would not give up, even if they were at the brink of death. That was made them so fearless.

"Meet my brothers," the Tyrogue, Runt, introduced. "Jackie, Bruce and Spinner," he said, pointing from the Hitmonchan to the Hitmonlee and finally at the Hitmontop.

"Guys," Xavier muttered as he gulped, "this looks bad."

Zachary nodded. "Okay, just be quiet and explain the situation to—"

Yvette growled. "Listen, you psychotic shmucks!" she yelled, making Zachary and Xavier face-palm in frustration. "Get the hell out of here before I make you!"

The Hitmonchan frowned, raising his fists to his face. "How dare you talk like that to us," he said in a dangerously soft manner. "Hitmon Squadron – attack!"

Xavier groaned as he jumped up, avoiding a Fire Punch to the face from the Hitmonchan who rushed up to him in an instant. "Yvette, why couldn't you just shut that big mouth of yours?!" he shouted angrily.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not being as smart as you, _Professor_ Xavier!" she replied mockingly as she was nearly hit by Bruce's leg. Unfortunately, the leg swung back and struck her right on her neck and she gasped for breath as she fell to the ground.

The Tyrogue was happily looking at the battle going on while he hid behind a rock, gleefully smiling as he saw his brothers gaining the advantage with their superior power and versatility.

Xavier grunted in pain as he was jabbed in the stomach, the area around his belly freezing from the Ice Punch. Jackie then punched the treecko upwards on his lower jaw, sending him skywards before he crashed into a nearby tree.

He felt a shot of pain go up his spine once he crashed against the tree stunning him for a few seconds and disorienting his vision. He could see clearly enough that he moved his head, dodging the Fire Punch by an inch as it instead smacked against the tree, burning a circle of bark. Even then, Xavier could feel the heat kill the cells on the surface of his skin, and he got up to land his barrage of attacks.

"Take this!" He felt his long, bushy tail harden for a second before he smacked it on top of the Hitmonchan's head hard enough for him to crumple to the ground, knocked out – he recognized the move as Slam – although Xavier knew that Jackie would be unconscious only for a few moments before he woke back up and continued to thrash him. In the meantime, he decided to help his friends, who were currently having trouble against their foes.

Although Zachary had a good start, he was lagging behind – Bruce the Hitmonlee was using his stretchy limbs as a loophole to wrap them around the Croagunk's body and attack him with the rest of his limbs. He knew that Bruce was weak, though – the continuous use of Poison Jab had allowed some poison to be leaked into his bloodstream, sapping the energy out of him and making his reflexes slower.

Bruce hurled Zachary at a nearby tree, unrolling his arm before striking the Croagunk with a blazing kick at the last second. Zachary groaned in pain while the embers disappeared. Xavier decided that it was time for a sneak attack.

Before Bruce could move a muscle, Xavier sped towards him with incredible speed, leaving a trail of white light behind him before he slammed into the kicking pokémon's torso, stunning him. Xavier then went on to deliver a close-range Dragonbreath to the face, searing his skin and sending him tumbling to the ground.

Xavier ran up to Zachary and stood next to him while Bruce started to stand up again. "What all moves do you have?" he asked the Croagunk.

Zachary thought for a moment before he spoke. "I know Revenge, Poison Jab, Mud Slap, Endure and Counter. Why?"

Xavier grinned. "No, I just needed something. For now, we just need to keep these three at bay."

Xavier turned and frowned to see the Hitmonchan standing back up, an angrier glare on his face as he started to breathe heavily. His left fist was burning while the right fist was sparkling with electricity. With a mad grin he walked to Bruce and lifted him up, who was soon joined by Spinner the Hitmontop. Yvette ran to Zachary's and Xavier's side, starting a staring contest with the other group.

"Hitmon Squadron," Bruce muttered. "Let's take them down one by one; it'll be easier that way." He smirked at Zachary. "Let's take that frog down first."

 _Perfect,_ Xavier mused with a grin, and he turned to Zachary. "Zac, you know what to do, right?"

Zachary nodded fearfully. "Y-Yeah."

"Hitmon Squadron!" the three Hitmons yelled as they took funny poses. "Triple Threat Attack!"

Xavier took a small glance of each of their attacks – Jackie's fist was crackling with electricity, Bruce's leg was burning as a bright flame surround it, while Spinner was spinning on his head, preparing to launch a spinning kick at Zachary.

 _If Zac manages to keep standing, then this will be great,_ he thought.

He heard Zachary grunt in pain as the three attacks combined and struck him on his torso, making him kneel down as he fought the urge to go unconscious. Xavier could only imagine the pain his friend was feeling right now – if he endure the attacks, the returning attack would be devastating.

The three brothers widened their eyes as they saw Zachary still conscious, although with barely any energy left in him. "Now, Zachary – Counter!" Xavier shouted.

Zachary bellowed in rage, earning whimpers from his opponents as a red aura surrounded him while his fists were surrounded by a hot glow. With another roar he lashed out at them, the wave of energy around him smacking into his enemies and hurling them back before Zachary began to thrash him soundly. The dust cleared after a few minutes, showing Zachary breathing heavily while the three Hitmons were lying on the ground, unconscious.

"That…was…freaking awesome!" Yvette exclaimed with a grin as she ran up to support her friend. Xavier shot a glare at the hiding Tyrogue, who whimpered before running away from the scene.

Jackie the Hitmonchan gritted his teeth. "How can…"

"…We…be…" Bruce continued.

"Defeated?!" the three exclaimed in unison.

"Now, listen here," Yvette growled, earning a squeal of pain from the Hitmonlee as she squashed his hand. "You will never, ever, _ever_ trouble anyone ever again!" she shouted. "And if you do I'll hear all about it, and I'll give you a good beating!"

The three brothers whimpered and made a whole lot of promises that they would be good fighting-types who would rarely trouble people, but Xavier and his companions didn't stick around to chat. The sun was going down, and they had to return to the Zairian Guild, unless they wanted to do the chores for the next entire week.


	7. The Secret is no Longer a Secret

**No way. It can't be...an update?!**

 **Yes, I'm back, or rather, this story is back. I am SO sorry for ignoring this fic, but I had a really tough several months, what with my laptop still still being repaired, rewriting _Trainer,_ college, the usual. It's also part writer's block and declining interest in this fic, but if you're still reading this after several months, all I can say is thank you for sticking with me. I have a lot of ideas for this that I want to complete and it just broke my heart to ignore this PMD fic.**

 **Rest assured, this will finish one day, although I don't know when. In the meantime, please enjoy this chapter!** **RR!**

XxXxX

Xavier spent the next several days reading up about his new home. He knew next to nothing about this world and always felt awkward whenever he was with the rest of the guild members, who were quite knowledgeable about current and past affairs of the pokémon world, and the Treecko always did his best to change the topic whenever they asked for his opinion.

By now Xavier was starting to panic; he didn't want to arouse his new friends' suspicion. Thankfully, Zairian's Guild had an enormous library which held an absurd amount of books in its shelves.

He spent most of his time in solitude rather than with Zachary or Yvette. Although they'd helped each other a multitude of times, he didn't exactly consider them as his friends. They were companions who would help him on his quest to return to his _real_ home.

Xavier checked out a myriad of books from the library with the help of the kindly librarian – an Oranguru by the name of Merlin. Xavier could see that he was immensely powerful due to the strong psychic presence that radiated from him. Merlin had raised a eyebrow when he saw Xavier stumbling towards him with a load of thick books in his arms, but shrugged it off by saying that he loved seeing people read.

In the end, Xavier skipped lunch and headed secretly to his team's room to go through one of the books he'd borrowed from the library. Several of them were dusty, but a few looked quite new and not as mouldy as the others.

He flipped a book open as he slowly munched on a Liechi berry. A few pages later, he came across a large map of what seemed to be this region.

It was large, a bit like the Hoenn region, with little land and a lot of water. It was...fractured. Islands were scattered inside of it, but the rest of it was land, with jagged and uneven edges. The right hand corner of the page had a series of larger islands, kind of like Sevii, except that there were eight chunks of land aimlessly arranged next to each other.

A volcano – Xavier assumed that it was a volcano – jutted out in the north of the region. The land had dotted red lines to mark different territories – Samagaeru, Hodor, Lezin, to name a few.

The monarch system was...interesting. The Opolov region had seven districts (as far as he knew, he was in Thecenae district), each with a king of their own, but with a High King that ruled over the entire region. The High King could be from anywhere, but he had to be the eldest descendent of Ares, the legendary Emboar who singlehandedly united the fractured territory of Opolov under a single banner a few hundred years ago with nothing but his own will and strength.

The current High King was Alexander III, the Empoleon who had unexpectedly taken over fourteen years ago after his father, a Slaking by the name of Royal, had died mysterious due to an overdose of poison. The current High King was pretty unpopular since Royal had been a great ruler, and many thought that Alexander had most probably killed his own father for the throne, but Xavier didn't think so. He didn't think such a meek person would do such a thing to his own blood. Then again, humans did that too, so it wasn't surprising...

Xavier pondered more over _History of Opolov_. It wasn't uninteresting, but after thirty minutes Xavier was bored of skipping pages of seemingly unending wars that occurred every few years. Frankly, Xavier was astounded to find out that there had been seven squabbles in the span of ten years. Apparently Alexander wasn't good at keeping enemies at bay—

He flinched and choked on the Liechi berry as the door was kicked open with sudden speed and Yvette hopped inside. The Torchic stared at him quizzically as Xavier repeatedly thumped his green, reptilian chest in an effort to push down the half-eaten lump of the Liechi berry in his throat. After what seemed like an eternity, he forced the bolus down his oesophagus and glared at Yvette, his eyes watering from the pain.

"Y-Yvette!" he spluttered. "You scared the _bejesus_ out of me!"

The Torchic frowned. "How was I to – are you _reading_?!"

The Treecko hastily shut the book and stashed it in his bed. Yvette stared at her friend with wide eyes before shrieking in laughter.

"Oh my gods, I can't believe you were reading!" She let out another squawk full of mirth. "What are you, a nerd? I mean, I knew you were nerdy, but I didn't know you were an _actual nerd_. Wait till Zachary hears about this! Arceus, this is..."

Xavier sighed internally in relief. _At least she didn't suspect me of anything_ , he said to himself in relief. _I was just shitting myself for no reason..._

"What are you reading, anyway?" Yvette asked once she was done booming in laughter, a bizarre sound to hear coming from a Torchic. She waddled over to Xavier and peeked at the books on his new bed. They'd been doing so many missions over the past two weeks that Zairian, the eccentric Azumarill, had awarded them the Bronze Rank, which gave them new perks such as a new room on the third floor (which included fluffy beds which were not made of straw), access to training rooms and higher ranked missions, larger rewards, etc. Personally, Xavier didn't care, but it was a huge improvement from the confining rooms they'd spend ten weeks in.

" _History of Opolov_ ," Yvette muttered softly. She turned and frowned at Xavier. "Why are you reading this? Surely there are many other more interesting books in the library," she told him.

Xavier smiled nervously. "Uh, I was just, um...revising!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, revising my knowledge about the region, y'know. I like this kinda stuff..."

"Huh." She looked strangely at the Treecko. "You're a very weird majuu, Xavier."

That one caught him by surprise. "Ma-what?" he asked.

Yvette shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you're playing at, but you've got a terrible sense of humour. Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "The main reason I came up here was because dinner's commencing in a while. Make sure you're there or the Guildmaster is going to get _pissed_. Got it?"

Without waiting for a reply, Yvette haughtily walked out of the door, allowing Xavier to sigh in relief when she finally slammed the door shut. That was close. Plus, he didn't understand what Yvette had called him...Marge? Maagic? The Treecko shrugged and reached out for a book. He'd figure that out later.

About half an hour later, when Zairian's voice blared through the speakers in the room, Xavier made his way to the dining room on the second floor. It turned out he was late; almost all seats were taken, but the Treecko managed to squeeze himself between a Granbull and an Ivysaur thanks to his lean and slender body. The head chef, Polo, a Chansey, grumbled once he saw the Treecko but, nevertheless, brought another plate of roast berry for him.

Dinner was pretty much the same affair as usual. Xavier ate slowly, lost in thought and he didn't talk much since the pokémon next to him were unknown. He could see Yvette and Zachary several seats away. In fact, to they were sitting only two seats away from the Guildmaster while Xavier was sitting at the other end of the side. After the meal, The servers brought forth the dessert, and Xavier tucked into it heartily. Before he could do so, however, Zairian rose from his seat and demanded silence.

He got it. "Well as you all know," the Azumarill said, "we are currently in the third quarter of the year. The guild has been doing quite well, thanks to all of you bringing home fame, thanks and, not to forget, money. Anyway, it is a tradition for the Guildmaster and a select few guild members to go out on a group expedition with several guildmembers to explore new and normally-inaccessible areas annually." There were collective gasps around the table, and many pokémon, including Xavier, who began sitting up straight and finally started to pay attention. "This year, however, seeing as there are a multitude of Bronze Ranked teams, I and my team of trusted staff have decided to lower the team requirement from Silver to Bronze."

Several more gasped; pokémon were muttering to each other in loud whispers until Vicky had to slam the table with a fist, gaining all attention onto the Hawlucha and then the Azumarill.

"This is the first time in many years that such a perk has been provided" (Xavier could see Yvette staring at Zairian with shining eyes) "and so I urge you to make haste and do your best to be selected for the Zairian Guild's expedition. I will select only a handful, so get to work and become part of the cream of the crop in Zairian Guild! Good luck!"

The second Zairian finished, everyone exploded into speech as the got up and dispersed. Yvette and Zachary immediately rushed over to Xavier with grins on their faces.

"Xavier!" Yvette exclaimed. "Did you hear what Zairian said? Bronze Ranked teams are allowed too. Wow!"

"Yeah, I heard that the first time, thanks," Xavier replied.

"That's not the point," Zachary snapped. The Croagunk looked excited. "The point is that we have a shot at this! Plus, Zairian's expeditions are _legendary_! I heard they went to Miracle Mountain last year."

Xavier didn't know jack about Miracle Mountain, but he did his best to look impressed. Zachary grinned at him. "So," the Croagunk said, "starting tomorrow, we are going to become newer and better versions of ourselves! We will wake up at the crack of dawn, earlier than Whis comes into our room—"

"—I don't think that'll work out for me—" Yvette muttered in an undertone.

"—and we will select only the hardest missions that our rank is allowed," Zachary finished, completely ignoring Yvette. "Oh, and we'll do as many chores as we can! Oscar told me that they give rewards for doing stuff like that and they even have a record of who did what chores. We'll make the cut in no time flat!"

Xavier shrugged. "Okay, if you say so..."

Yvette suddenly nipped his arm, earning a gasp of pain from the Treecko. I don't think you understand the seriousness of this situation, runt!" she shrieked. "We have to get selected _no matter what_! Or else I'ma eat you for breakfast!"

"I'd like to see you try," Xavier sneered.

"Okay, that is enough!" Zachary squeezed himself between his two friends. "If we keep having petty fights between ourselves, we'll never be selected. They the behaviour and your social skills into consideration too, you—"

"Oh, shut it, Zachary," Xavier snapped.

XxXxX

"CROOOOOOOAAAK!"

"What the f—"

Xavier shot up from his bunk bed, ready to see the face of Whis the Exploud (who also served as the guild's alarm clock in addition to being an Explorer), but was surprised to find a cheery Croagunk an inch away from his face.

"Wha – _Zachary_ —?!"

Zachary grinned. "What the hell are you doing?" Xavier asked in a hiss.

"Don't you remember our promise last night? We decided to wake up early so that we'll get the best missions of all!" he reminded the Treecko. "And that'll only happen if we wake up as early as possible."

"Well, what time is it?" Xavier asked hesitantly, afraid to find out the answer.

"Five-thirty."

Xavier groaned. "Goddammit, Zach! But Whis doesn't wake up before seven o'clock—"

"Exactly, but I'm not going to wait for you to complain about this," Zachary interrupted. Instead, he leapt down from Xavier's bed and onto Yvette's, which was the one below the Treecko's.

Zachary pressed his lips next to Yvette's ear, then bellowed a deafening croak that immediately woke up the third member of Team XYZ. The Torchic shrieked and jumped so high that she hit her head against the lower part of Xavier's bed.

"Intruder alert, intrud—" she screamed, but stopped when she recognised Zachary's laughing face. "Zac, is that you?!"

Once everything was cleared out, the trio made their way to the common room. The only pokémon who were still awake we most of the staff members, the Guildmaster and two or three other exploration teams who had the same idea as them. Other than just a quick nod of acknowledgement and a polite smile for some, they didn't say anything until they reached their destination.

Xavier found it weird for an espresso machine to exist in the pokémon world, but he nevertheless enjoyed his coffee. It was even weirder to see Zachary and Yvette gulping down cup after cup of coffee until they seemed to be energised by the caffeine. When the two were done, they each gave Xavier a strangely excited smile before they rushed to the assembly room.

Xavier, Zachary and Yvette saw Zairian in the assembly room with shades over his eyes. It was an odd sight, but a sight the three of them were used to. "Hello, Guildmaster," the three chanted excitedly when they saw the Azumarill.

"Hello, guildlings!" she greeted back. "A bit early, aren't you? I haven't asked Whis to take up alarm duty so early!"

Zachary grinned fiercely at her. "No, Guildmaster, we decided to wake up on our own. Y'know, 'early to bed, early to rise, makes a majuu healthy and wise'. Er, and we wanted to do our best to get selected for the group expedition," he admitted sheepishly.

Zairian chuckled. "Oh, do your best! I really hope I see such energetic majuu with me on the expedition!"

"Well hope so, too," Xavier said, but silently he was wondering, _What the heck is_ majuu

She waved at them. "Anyway, I've got to go. Guildmaster work, you know. Ta-ta!"

The three waved back at her as she left. Yvette grinned at her friends.

"Maybe she's developed a soft spot for us," she told them. "Oh, I do hope she takes us with us! It'll be so much fun!"

They spent a good amount of time over choosing the required missions, and finally they came up with three: two retrieval missions and a rescue mission. The retrieval missions were pretty easy since both of the required items were in the same location; they received a healthy reward (most of which was given to the guild) and were now halfway through their rescue mission.

"Ugh..." Yvette scrunched her face in disgust. "I didn't expect Damp Cave to be so damp...This place sucks..."

"I have to agree with Yvette on this one," Xavier admitted, pulling out his foot from a puddle of mud he'd accidentally stepped into. "Why couldn't we choose a better mission?"

"Because the only one with the biggest reward," Zachary explained. "These rich families pay anything to get what they want."

Suddenly a thin jet of water was blasted from the distance and Xavier instantly ducked, avoiding the Water Gun. "There's a feral majuu in the area!" Zachary called out. "Get ready!"

Xavier crouched, his ears pricking at any sound in the distance. Yvette was scratching at the ground with her claws while Zachary had his powerful arms at the ready.

Then, a small, yellow reptile pounced out from behind a moss-covered rock and shot a tendril of electricity that struck Zachary square on his chest and knocked him off the ground. Xavier and Yvette jumped back as the lizard-like creature – a Helioptile, Xavier corrected – landed on the wet and muddy ground, hissing aggressively.

"G-Get it!" Zachary choked out a moment later. Xavier swung his tail at the Helioptile for a Slam, and Yvette lunged at her with a Scratch, but Helioptile adeptly jumped back and caused the Treecko and Torchic to crash into each other. While Xavier and Yvette groaned more surprise, the feral Helioptile shocked them with a powerful Thundershock that sent them twitching. The electric-type giggled for a moment but ceased immediately when Zachary leapt at it with a purple fist.

The Poison Jab connected with Helioptile and sent her doubling over in pain. Apparently it had great strength and speed but not good stamina. They could work with that.

"Die!" Helioptile cried in a surprisingly raspy voice. The frills crackled with electricity and discharged a large amount of lightning from her entire body.

The discharge of electricity struck all three of them, but Xavier got the worst of it because he was still in the large puddle of water. Every nerve in his body burned for those few seconds as the electricity flowed over his body. He gasped in pain and fell to the ground, his muscles aching.

But Xavier pushed himself up and leapt into the air, glaring at the Helioptile. "Eat this!" He opened his mouth and spewed a stream of indigo flames that blasted the reptilian creature from her spot, flying right towards Zachary, who pummelled Helioptile's back with a Drain Punch, tossing her into the water. Helioptile struggled to push herself back up, but a Yvette opened her beak and let loose a swirling torrent of flames that completely engulfed Helioptile and earned shrieks and screams of pain from her. The Torchic kept going with the Fire Spin until the cries of agony subsided, and Yvette closed her beak shut, effectively ending the fire attack.

"Good riddance." Yvette huffed proudly and rolled the Helioptile over with a claw. Her body was completely roasted and her eyes were wide with pain, her skin hard and rough. "I'm so powerful, I took down a Helioptile with just one Fire Spin!"

"Actually, she might've had the Dry Skin ability," Xavier mused, "which was why she seemed to take more damage from your fire ty – uh, element moves. You're not all that strong, you know," he finished, smirking.

Zachary guffawed loudly, but stopped when he saw Yvette's murderous expression. "Anyway, let's go onwards! We've got a Cyndaquil to save."

Xavier nodded. He and Zachary marched forwards, Yvette following a moment later after she spat a few burning embers at the already-unconscious Helioptile.

XxXxX

Two hours later they were back at Gem Town, delivering the rescued Cyndaquil back to his parents. Apparently Gon (the Cyndaquil) had gone on a trek to Damp Cave with his friends and accidentally stumbled on an Dewpider nest, where his friends quickly abandoned him and left the Cyndaquil at the mercy of the Dewpider and the lead Araquanid. Xavier, Zachary and Yvette had taken down the six Dewpider easily, and, after what seemed like eternity, pinned the Araquanid down with them. Gon's family had given them a fairly large sum of money (it would've been much larger if ninety percent of it hadn't been given to the guild) and then they'd set of for Zairian's Guild.

When they finally reached Zairian's Guild, they were dead-tired and made their way to the hospital wing where they were treated by the doctor/head chef, Polo. The Chansey's healing skills were incredible and the trio were patched up in a jiffy. After thanking Polo, they made their way to their room to await further instructions from Zachary.

"Okay, now that we're done with our missions, we've got to sign up for chores," the Croagunk told them in his deep, calm voice. "Yvette, you'll sign up for washing the dishes after dinner—" the Torchic scowled, "—Xavier, you'll be up for guard duty while I'll be at clean-up duty. Got it?"

"Yes Siree!" Xavier said.

"How the hell am I supposed to clean the dishes?" Yvette complained. "I don't even have hands!"

Zachary shrugged. "You'll have to figure that out on your own," he told her nonchalantly, causing her to fume in anger, but the Torchic didn't say anything. "Okay, people! Let's go!"

It took only a couple of minutes for the trio to split up and head to their destinations silently. Xavier chewed his lip nervously as he walked to the entrance of the guild, greeting other guildmembers along the way until he found himself at the work desk. A small Delibird sat there, a bored expression on his face, which perked up the second he saw Xavier approaching him.

"Hello!" he said excitedly. "What's up, boyo?"

"Uh, I'm here to apply for guard duty this week," the Treecko replied timidly. The Delibird made a soft exclamation and began to write something in his notebook. "Er, can I know your name, by the way?"

"The name's Coolson," the avian answered. "But most majuu call me Coolio. Pretty cool, eh?" His eyes twinkled. "But right now I'm just surprised, because in all my life I have never met someone who's willingly applied for the post of guard duty! I mean, it's dead tiring, but I'm drifting from the topic at hand. The paperwork's all done. You'll be helping Wotcher and Scout for the week. G'day, mate!"

Xavier bid farewell to Coolson and made way for the exit of the guild. He had a job to do.

XxXxX

Guard duty went rather well in Xavier's opinion. The Treecko had met up with Wotcher and Scout (a Watchog and Sentret respectively) immediately after bidding Coolson farewell and all he had to do was sit in a Murkrow's nest and take a note of every single pokémon entering the guild by the left flank, which was restricted only to staff members. Although Xavier's eyesight wasn't the best and he didn't have Noctowl vision, he did fairly well at his new job.

When night-time rolled in and the sky got too dark for him to continue, Xavier let Wotcher the Watchog take his place in the Murkrow's nest before heading to his cabin. It was late, and he didn't want to be caught by anyone past curfew. As quietly as he could, the Treecko tiptoed to his cabin and only breathed when he closed the door shut.

His teammates were already sleeping, although he wasn't surprised by their passed out forms. Xavier grunted in content as he munched on a piece of fruit in he room; he really was hungry. He quickly gobbled the apple down and was about to leap onto his bed before he noticed something on it.

Books. Xavier groaned; he'd forgotten to return them first thing in the morning since today was the deadline the librarian had set for him. He'd heard that Merlin was extremely strict when it came to the returning of books and never forgot anything, and unless Xavier would return the books today, Merlin would ask for a fine and the Treecko was sure that his teammates wouldn't take a deduction of their money kindly.

"Goddammit," he muttered, but he decided to return the books right now. Xavier had no doubt that the librarian would be awake right now, since most psychic-types spent a lot of time awake in meditation and whatnot. With a soft grunt, he piled the numerous books in his arms before quietly slipping out of the room.

Thankfully, the library was still open. Xavier pushed the door open with his leg and almost fell down, but managed to balance himself with his thick tail. It was odd, having an appendage sprouting from his ass, over time he'd gotten used to it.

"Oh? Hello, Xavier," Merlin the Oranguru said in his deep, calm voice as he saw Xavier waddle into the enormous library with an absurd amount of books in his hands. "Finally returning the books, I see. Did you enjoy them?"

"Yep," Xavier replied, setting the books onto Merlin's desk. "They were quite interesting, especially _Myths and Legends_. That one was the best."

Merlin's lips curled upwards ever so slightly. "Everybody loves lore, Xavier," he said. "No one can resist it for long."

"I know they're not true, but it's nice to read stories once in a while."

The Oranguru frowned. "What do you mean, Xavier?"

Xavier shrugged. "Well, come on...You don't _honestly_ believe that, out there, there are beings like Mew, or Celebi, right?"

"Of course we do," Merlin replied, slightly offended. "Why do you not believe in the gods?"

The Treecko rolled his eyes. "I mean, there are legends like Moltres and Zapdos and Thunderus out there," he explained, "and there are reliable sources for their existence. But creatures like Jirachi, well...they're myths. Stories for little children, so that they find our dull world a bit interesting."

Merlin chuckled, waving one of his large arms. "Oh, you babe in the woods!" he exclaimed. "Take the example of humans, for example. At first, there were so few m—" He stopped abruptly, the crease on his forehead deepening as he looked at the Treecko in front of him. "Is something wrong, Xavier?" Merlin asked, concerned.

 _SHIT!_ Xavier screamed furiously in his mind, beads of sweat forming on his reptilian form. "Wh-Wha-What's wro-wrong? N-Nothing!" he stuttered, his mind working furiously as he tried to destroy any suspicion forming in Merlin's mind as the psychic-type eyed him sceptically. Apparently Merlin didn't think much of it because he didn't press Xavier any further.

"I see..." he muttered, although he was still looking at Xavier with an ounce of suspicion.

Exhaling to calm himself, Xavier dared to venture and risk everything by asking, "Do you know anything about them...I mean, humans?"

The Oranguru shrugged. "Why, of course!"

"Could...could you elaborate, please...?"

Merlin sighed. "Well, humans feature in many legends...I know one such legend, of course, most majuu do...It says that Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, after forming our universe, created a parallel universe which contained beings called humans. They weren't special, like us majuu; they could not manipulate fire, nor water, nothing, but they were incredibly smart. Well, you can read the rest of it in _Tales of Old_ , because if I won't mind giving you a lengthy description of that tale!

"Now that I think about it," Merlin continued, frowning, "I've even heard of real-life stories of human beings transported to our world from their own as majuu."

Xavier paled, panic building in his chest. _Holy fucking shit!_ he screamed in his head. _This beats everything!_

"They all were brought here during difficult times," Merlin said. "Like when the Time Gears of the world were stolen, a human, supposedly from the future, was transformed into a Squirtle, and she, along with a Pikachu, went on to defeat Time itself and save the world! Mad, eh?"

Xavier laughed nervously. "Y-Yeah, I suppose it is," he stammered. "I mean, just the thought of a h-h-h-human being morphed into a pokémon is completely—"

"What did you say?"

Xavier flinched. The Oranguru's voice was no longer friendly; no, it was sharp, suspicious, calculating, as if he didn't trust Xavier any more. Merlin's eyes bore straight through the Treecko as he threw the grass-type a piercing stare, finally discerning something.

"Sorry?" Xavier said.

"You said 'pokémon'," Merlin said softly. "Pokémon. Can I say something? As far as I know – and I know a lot, mind you – no one has used the term 'pokémon' to identify majuu – that is, except for the humans who have been brought to our world. So, Xavier...are you, or were you, a human?"

Xavier fought to control his bowels.

"Would you care to answer my question, Xavier?" Merlin repeated.

The Treecko was so stricken with fear that his speech was disorderly. "B-b-bubba bobba hob-hobba-hobba wah-wah," he babbled, entire body shaking.

Suddenly, Merlin's entire body was surrounded by an outline of polychromatic light. Xavier watched, entranced, as the Oranguru closed his eyes for a split-second in concentration, then snapped them open and locked them onto Xavier's. The Treecko gasped in brief pain as his mind was flooded with his own memories: commuting with the Voice in the colourful void, waking up from an unconscious state on the beachside, tinkering in a lab in the body of a human—

Then, just as the images appeared, they vanished.

Xavier glared at Merlin, his features locked in a rictus of fury. "What the bloody hell did you just do to me?!" he screamed, letting his temper go.

Merlin simply sighed, the aura around his bulky figure fading. "Just as I suspected...You are – or were – a human."

Xavier froze. "I-I-I—"

"Please," Merlin deadpanned. "Don't insult my intelligence. All I had to do was take a small peek into your mind and extract a few of your memories – not to mention that you practically _reeked_ of fear and panic while we were talking about humans."

Silence filled the air.

"...I can't argue with that..." The Treecko's shoulders sagged.

Merlin smiled, appraising Xavier with entirely new interest. "My, my...a human before my very own eyes...Remarkable!"

Xavier blinked, his initial shock at his secret being revealed wearing off as he frowned at the librarian. "You seem to be taking this a lot better than I thought."

He shrugged. "Why shouldn't I?" Merlin said. "Humans are fascinating. I truly am excited to meet one after all!

"However," he continued, "I can't help but feel worried by your situation, Xavier. You see, humans only appear in our world if there is something truly evil going on. The bringing of a human generally occurs due to something legendary...I won't be surprised if one of the gods are stirring up some trouble."

Xavier gulped. "So...What are you trying to say?"

The Oranguru sighed. "I suppose it will be up to you to save us from this threat, Xavier," he said slowly. "But whatever it is, count me in. And don't worry about me revealing your secret – if you don't feel alright with me sharing your secret to your fellow mates, I'll keep it to myself. No worries!"

"Really?" His eyes lit up. "Thanks!"

"So..." Merlin smiled. "Do you mind telling me everything? There are still quite a few hours until wake-up, you know."

XxXxX

 **A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it wasn't a lot, but it was enough.**

 **Majuu is the equivalent for pokémon in this world. I find it pretty weird to call pokémon 'pokémon' since that's an abbreviation for pocket monsters. In the pokémon world, the species isn't known as pokémon since they aren't captured in pokeballs and are 'free'.**

 **According to bulbapedia, pokémon were known as Magical Creatures before pokeballs were invented. The Japanese terminology for Magical Creatures is 'majuu', so that's where I got it from.**

 **Next chapter will have the expedition! Team XYZ will obviously be part of it, because _plot._ I'll see you guys then - and don't forget to review!**


	8. The Group Expedition: Part One

After completing their day's last mission, Team XYZ retreated to their rooms for a good night's sleep. The last mission had been extremely tiring, since they'd busted a drug-peddling ring accidentally (Yvette had selected today's list, but it turned out that the berry juice business was just a front for selling alcohol, which was apparently illegal in the pokémon world). In the end Zachary, Yvette and Xavier were forced to take down four Machoke and a particularly powerful Scrafty. Needless to say, Xavier was happy that they managed to pull it off, although his butt was still aching from the Scrafty's Crunch attack.

He was also happy at his progress during the past two weeks. Even though he was tired from the constant chores their team had selected (Zachary had insisted on doing as much as they could to be selected for the expedition) he managed to spend his free time with Merlin, who had been kind enough to make sure Xavier didn't let the truth spill out. The Treecko had memorized the entire map, learnt all the facts about his high King and even brushed up on the curse words that were used frequently. Xavier was now even used to saying 'majuu' instead of 'pokémon', although it still felt weird saying it, but he knew he'd get used to it.

When the next day came, Xavier and his friends headed to the meeting room with bleary eyes, since Zairian had an important announcement to make.

"Good morning, my guildlings!" the Azumarill greeted cheerfully. Once the guild members chanted the greeting back dully, she continued. "As you all know, I'm here to make a special announcement...and that is we will be on our way to our annual expedition tomorrow!"

"WHA?!" gasped everyone in the crowd. Eyes were wide and murmurs spread about.

"This year, we will be heading for Grifflet's Valley," Zairian informed. "It will be a five-day trip to and back, starting tomorrow. While I am gone, Polo will be in charge," she added, nodding at the Chansey behind her, whose hair-like extensions at either side of his head twitched in acknowledgement. Zairian looked back at the guild members and cracked a grin. "As for the teams who will be going with me...Vicky?"

"Right-o," the Hawlucha said, nodding. She closed her eyes and began reciting the names of the selected teams at top speed. "Team Strike Now, Team Splash, Team Predators, Team Lard Bucket, Team Claws, Team Trickster, and Team...XYZ!"

There was polite applause from those that weren't selected, while the others practically exploded in happiness.

"Hell yeah, baby!" Yvette screamed, jumping up and down. "WHOO!"

"That— that's enough, Yvette," Zachary said in a failed attempt to calm his friend down.

Xavier blinked. "They really chose us?" he wondered out loud, but winced as he felt mental fingers prod his mind. A split-second later, a familiar voice, deep, calm and reassuring, spoke in his head. _I may have dropped in a word or two to Zairian_ , he heard the voice say.

The Treecko's eyes immediately trailed to Merlin, whose eyes twinkled merrily from behind Polo the Chansey. The Oranguru had formed a mental link between himself and Xavier as a way to communicate via telepathy, although only Merlin could 'activate' the link, since he was the only one with psychic abilities. Still, Xavier was grateful towards Merlin for that; in that way he could ask his friend questions he couldn't normally ask while with his peers.

He was jarred back to reality as Zachary playfully slapped his back. Xavier winced slightly and involuntarily as the area that had been touched began to tingle from a dose of minor toxins. "Come on, Xavier," The Croagunk said. Xavier briefly wondered how similar Zachary and Merlin sounded. "Don't be such a pessimist!"

"Exactly!" Yvette agreed, but she glanced at Zachary a second later. "Uh, what _is_ a pessimist?"

Xavier snorted. As Zachary explained what a pessimist meant, Xavier glanced over to Team Claws, where Rachel the Weavile had crossed her arms and was smirking arrogantly while her teammates, a Sandslash and Drillbur, flanked her. Team Claws had been nasty and snarky to Xavier and his friends since the time they'd been introduced to the guild, cat-calling and trying to provoke them for no reason. For the most part they'd ignored the baits, but it was only Xavier and Zachary's strong arms that managed to restrain Yvette from roasting Rachel and her lackeys to a crisp, although Xavier highly doubted that would happen since the Weavile was more than double the Torchic's height and strength.

"Those selected, make sure that you've stocked up on supplies and medicines, since we'll leave tomorrow at eight in the morning. Assemble here, and not a second late – we'll be leaving without a second to lose, and those who are tardy will be left behind. Understand?" When the crowd of pokémon – no, majuu, Xavier corrected – nodded, Zairian smiled. "Good! You are dismissed."

The crowd dispersed, most majuu groaning in disappointment at not being chosen, while the selected teams were chattering excitedly amongst each other. A few of them stayed behind and began bombarding the Guildmaster and her fellow staff members with questions and the rest trailed away slowly.

Team XYZ immediately headed out in order to buy supplies from Gem Town's local bazaar. They were low on medicines and food, which had been severely depleted over the week, during which they'd carried out innumerable tasks and missions. Xavier engaged Yvette in gossip to waste time as they walked towards the bazaar while Zachary carefully counted their money over and over again.

Xavier found Zachary grinning giddily and frowned. "What's up?"

The Croagunk snickered and tightened his grip around the Pikachu-shaped wallet that was bursting with coins. "I think we have enough money to splurge on TMs for each of us!"

At 'TMs', Xavier's eyes nearly widened, although he was now a master at hiding his shock whenever surprising things were revealed, but his amazement lessened almost immediately. Now that he thought about it, he'd seen TMs on his first day here...although he wondered how the application process would be...

Yvette gasped. "Wow!" she squealed, hopping on her talons. "Are you sure, Zac? I don't wanna go broke just because you wanted to buy TMs early..." She pouted as well as she could with her beak.

"I'm certain, Yvette." Zachary pounded his chest with a clenched fist. "We'll only have a hundred coins left after buying food and TMs, but I'm sure we can manage with that much."

"I'm fine with it..." The Torchic's eyes shifted to Xavier. "What about you, Xavier? Should we buy TMs for us?"

"Um, okay, I guess." Truth be told, he didn't exactly promote technical machines and their usage on pokémon, but there was always a first time for everything. Now that he was a majuu, he might as well give it a try. It was literally a once in a lifetime experience.

"It's settled, then!" Zachary clapped his hands, grinning. "Team XYZ – onwards!"

They headed towards the Kecleon Shop, which was the only place that sold TMs. It took quite some time to get there, since the bazaar was bursting with pokémon – apparently every other majuu had decided to buy supplies right now, just to irritate the trio. Still, they trudged on, ignoring the accidental shoves and pushes from the rest of the shopping majuu, until they finally reached the desired store.

The Kecleon brothers had just finished selling to a Braixen, and they perked up when they saw Team XYZ approaching.

"Welcome!" the purple Kecleon – Ignotus, Xavier remembered – greeted. "How may we help you today?"

Zachary shifted in his spot. "Uh, we'd like to buy..."

And so Zachary listed off the amount of each item they'd needed, Ignotus quickly packing up the supplies while Yvette and Xavier stood behind, whistling to their heart's content. They made sure to buy the bare minimum of food and supplies required so that they'd have enough coins to buy TMs; Xavier stuffed their purchases inside their sling bag.

Xavier rubbed his palms in anticipation. "Can we see your stock of TMs, please?" Yvette asked in her most polite tone.

The other Kecleon, who didn't have the Shiny phenomenon like his brother and had the name of Beedle, grinned. "Of course! Take as much time as you want!" he exclaimed.

His brother Ignotus reached at the back of the store and pulled a case of circular disks, most of them having different shades. "Whoa," Xavier muttered. "Take a look at this load..."

"We got Protect, Dream Eater, Sleep Talk, Shadow Claw, Focus Blast, Brick Break, Solar Beam, and Sunny Day," Beedle informed. "Wha'd'ya'll wanna take? They're all the same price."

Zachary tapped his chin. "I think I'll take Focus Blast," he said slowly, in the deep and calm voice of his. "I need some energy attacks on my arsenal."

"I'm taking Shadow Claw!" Yvette barked without a moment's hesitation. Xavier rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm. "Then I can bust up those punk-ass psychos for Zachary!"

The Croagunk in question cringed a bit at the crudeness of her remark. He looked at his third teammate and friend. "Xavier?"

"Protect," he said immediately.

Yvette frowned in confusion. "Huh?" the Torchic uttered. "But...but what about Solar Beam?! You'll be able to kick ass with that move!"

Xavier pursed his lips. "I know, but Solar Beam requires a lot of sunlight to be created," he countered. "And what if we're duking it out in a cave or something? It'll probably take an entire battle for me to use that move. While incredibly powerful, it does have limitations. At least Protect'll save me from devastating techniques. Sometimes the best defence is a good offence," he finished.

"Looks like Xavier's entered 'Professor mode'," Yvette said in an undertone, rolling her eyes.

"Well said, Xavier." Zachary clapped his comrade on the shoulder before turning to the Kecleon brothers. "Well, that's what we want to buy. How much will that be?"

They paid the required amount, receiving three disks in return. The trio bowed to Ignotus and Beedle Kecleon, a gesture which the normal-types returned, before heading back to the guild. Zachary had the TMs hidden from view and Xavier and Yvette were huddling protectively around the Croagunk and keeping a watchful eye on anybody who came near.

XxXxX

"So...How do we apply these things?"

Zachary, Yvette and Xavier were back at the guild, lounging in the assembly room. They were lazing around right now since they'd been barred from carrying out missions, direct orders from Zairian; the Azumarill didn't want any of the selected teams to overexert themselves, and wanted them to reserve their energy for the expedition. Needless to say, Xavier was happy by this order, since the past week of constant working had made him wonder whether the slave-drivers back home were worse or not.

Yvette looked at him like as if he'd fame from another dimension...which was kind of true, although the Torchic didn't need to know about that. "You don't know how TMs work?" she exclaimed, astounded.

Xavier felt like cursing himself for his big mouth, but thankfully Zachary came to the rescue. "Don't be mean, Yvette," he chided. "So what if he doesn't know? There's a first time for everyone."

Xavier breathed a sigh of relief. While he was more careful about blowing his cover (courtesy of Merlin) he was still afraid of the others finding out about his true identity. Merlin had told him that while there were some who wouldn't bat an eye for him being a human, there were other majuu who would freak out and make him an outcast or the local pariah and drive him out to the wilderness at the very least. The worst case would be for the High King himself to step in and have him executed, which was kind of lame, but Alexander III was very superstitious, at least according to the friendly Oranguru.

Yvette and Zachary told Xavier to follow them, something which he complied to. The Croagunk and Torchic lead him to a small room, which had a gold plaque overhead that read TM ROOM. It was fairly small, and it had a large machine at the opposite end of the room. The trio headed towards it without hesitation.

The machine was as big as Xavier and looked more or less like an ATM. The small screen lit up when Zachary pressed one of the two buttons to the side of it, displaying a menu with three options. From top to bottom, they read: Apply, Load, and Eject. Without pressing anything else, Zachary reached for the Focus Blast TM and inspected it for a second.

"Let me show you how it's done," he said. He inserted the disk in the slot on the machine, which was placed at the level of Xavier's midsection. The machine made whirred as it swallowed the TM before the sound ceased, indicating that the machine was done processing the information.

Xavier watched as Zachary reached for the compartment next to the TM slot, pressing said compartment and causing a headgear to eject out. The headgear consisted of a jetted out of the machine and branched off into two separate wires that had electrode pads at the end.

Zachary carefully placed the pads on either side of his forehead. He then nodded at Xavier. "When I say go, press the option that says Apply."

The Treecko nodded, hovering a finger over the option on the touchscreen that said Apply. Yvette watched nervously and flinched when Zachary said "Go!"

Xavier pressed the option and the machine began to emit a fan-like sound. The Croagunk didn't receive any pain, but he did wince as soon as the process started. His eyes achieved an orange-red glow as the process continued for over twenty seconds before abruptly stopping.

Zachary waited for a few seconds before pulling the headgear off. "Did it work?" Xavier asked.

The Croagunk clenched a fist, grinning as he nodded. Yvette squealed. "Me next!"

Zachary disposed the Focus Blast TM, which had lost its data, while Xavier booted up the Shadow Claw TM. Yvette was almost giddy with anticipation as the Treecko placed the headgear on her head and began the process – it was identical to what Zachary underwent, although the Torchic barely twitched, and her eyes instead glowed a menacing purple.

Yvette immediately began flexing her talons while Xavier prepared himself for his own turn. The electrode pads stuck to his temples with a thin layer of glue. He exhaled deeply and gave Zachary a half-hearted thumbs-up.

It took two hours for Xavier to remember what happened next.

He felt as if someone had given him innumerable static shocks, although the discomfort and pain was directed to his head. A sheen of translucent, white energy formed in front of his eyes, making everything seem blurred as gigabytes of data flowed into his mind. His body stiffened and he felt the discomfort for thirty solid seconds, which felt like centuries, before everything cut off abruptly.

Xavier found himself gasping for pain, and Yvette caught him. "Whoa, Greenie," she said, stabilising the Treecko. "Can't handle a little bit of pain?" she teased.

Xavier scowled. "I was taken by surprise, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Zachary cleared his throat. "Xavier, how do you feel?"

"I don't know." He paused, briefly touching his temple. "I don't feel stronger, but...I really don't know. It's like my capacity for knowledge has increased, and my brain has expanded, or something. I can't really explain it."

"Well, learning Protect doesn't make you stronger, but it certainly helps. Can you try it, since you won't destroy anything?"

Xavier nodded. He took a step back and focused. He hadn't really thought of using moves before; it had been purely instinctual to him, although using Dragonbreath made him feel a bit exhausted, as if he'd been using his life force or something, and it took a lot more willpower to use the energy-based attack. As he tried to use Protect, he felt an imaginary hand reaching for his subconscious, drawing a piece of information, like pulling a scab off the back of his mind.

He grunted as he tried to manifest his mental fortitude into a pin-sized point right between his eyes and project it outwards, but the first time nothing happened. He screwed up his eyes in concentration the second time, putting all his willpower into the move as he thrust his hands outwards, his tail stiffening.

The barrier appeared in the form of a circular shield of translucent emerald energy, barely covering the length of his body. He felt a bead if sweat trickling down his reptilian green forehead and grinned at his friends, who were looking a bit impressed. "How's...that?" he said in between gasps.

"Not bad for a first try," Zachary complimented, and Xavier let the shield fall down. He couldn't hold it for long before his knees went weak. "Using TM moves accurately takes a bit of time; you've got to practice it, since only the information needed to use the move is stored in mind. It won't be perfect immediately."

"Well, a prodigy like me is only going to take a try or two to master Shadow Claw!" Yvette boasted. Zachary simply snorted.

"What do we do now?" Xavier asked after an uncomfortable silence.

Yvette grinned. "Why don't we train?"

XxXxX

Xavier and his teammates woke up at the crack of dawn – they were too excited to sleep in. While they still had an hour left, their eagerness had overtaken them and they immediately packed up before shooting down towards the assembly room.

Many of the chosen teams were already present in the assembly room, most of them talking amongst each other. Xavier greeted the members of Team Splash while Goldeenson the Mightyena of Team Trickster engaged Zachary in conversation. Xavier waved at Whis the Exploud, one of the two members of Team Strike Now, who smiled back at the Treecko, while Yvette chirped a greeting at his partner, Whitney the Flaaffy.

"So," a voice breathed on the back of Xavier's neck, partially freezing it, "the newbies finally made it in, eh?"

Yvette wheeled around, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she recognized the intruder. "Rachel," she hissed.

The Weavile smirked, looking down on the shorter pokémon with smug eyes. She flexed her foot-long claws, which flashed under the light. Her teammates, a Sandslash and a Drillbur, flanked her, looking equally arrogant. "I hope you've got preservatives," she drawled, "'cuz you'll need to last long enough to catch up to us."

Spyke the Sandslash guffawed in a weedy voice. "Ha!" he barked. "Buuuuurn!"

Yvette snarled. "Piss off, you filthy cunts!"

"You better watch your tongue, newbie," Kuronova the Drillbur growled, her metallic claws glowing silver with the power of Metal Claw, ready to tear into her prey. "I think you're going to apologise. _Right now_."

"Well, _we_ didn't start this fight, so _you're_ going to be ones apologising," Xavier said with a frown, backing up Yvette. The Torchic cast a grateful look at her comrade before returning to glare at the three members of Team Claws.

The quills on Spyke's back stiffened. "Do you wanna go to war, punk?" he said in a dangerously low voice.

"M-Maybe." Xavier wasn't feeling particularly ballsy, but these three were asking for it.

"Guys, we need to stick together!" Zachary called out as he hurried over to them, his cheek-pouches puffed out as he drew in deep gulps of air. "I think we should...Team Claws," he muttered as he noticed them.

"Croagunk," Rachel acknowledged, with the slightest tilt of her head. He looked at the amphibian up and down with a sneer on her lips, then sighed as she finished gauging Zachary. "As much as I'd like the workout from crushing your asses, I don't wanna waste any of my energy, however little that might be. The Guildmaster might disapprove, no?" Her teammates sniggered, and Yvette scowled. "Ciao."

"What a bitch," Yvette mumbled angrily as the three Silver ranked guildmembers left. "I hope that coccydynia with a microphallus falls into a lava pit and rots there for the rest of eternity!"

"You must be pretty angry to use words with more than two syllables," Xavier teased with a cheeky grin. The Torchic stuck her tongue out in response.

"Everyone, listen up!" they heard Vicky shout suddenly. There was silence, except the quiet mumbling from Team Claws, as everyone focused on the female Hawlucha, whose right fist was engulfed in flames as a show of her strength. "We're gonna leave from in five minutes. Say your goodbyes or whatever girly shit you wanna do right now. Got it?"

Vicky nodded and walked away to give a set of instructions to Polo, while Xavier was approached by Merlin, who had a slight smile on his ape-like face. The Oranguru's fan was glowing faintly as he focused his psionic powers into it. "Could I borrow Xavier for a minute?" he said to Yvette and Zachary.

Yvette frowned suspiciously, and even Zachary looked a but puzzled. They looked at Xavier, who shrugged. "O-Of course," Zachary complied.

Merlin walked a few meters away, Xavier following, shooting an uneasy glance at his teammates. Were they suspicious about him? They must've realized that he spent most of his free time in the library by now...

"Rest easy," Merlin assured, making Xavier flinch. The Treecko stared at the psychic-type in confusion, and Merlin elaborated. "I can sense nothing but trust in your comrades' minds when thinking about you, although that Torchic hasn't completely accepted your presence. Rest assured, I do not think they will be able to work out the fact that you've come from another dimension."

He panicked a bit at that, but calmed down when he realised that no one had heard that last part. Xavier shifted in his spot. "So...what did you wanna talk about?"

Merlin shrugged his muscly shoulders. "Just to tell you to take care. Grifflet's Valley isn't particularly dangerous, but the rockslides are threatening. Plus the feral majuu are extremely territorial, so make sure you're up for a fight in case you get into one."

Xavier pouted. "That's it?" he complained. "My own mother could've done that, if she was here."

The Oranguru smiled dryly. "I also wanted to tell you that I will be researching on the infinity fragments while you are away. The presence of a human in our world is a warning that something ominous is about to occur. I won't be able to communicate with you while you're so far away, but make sure to remember everything that happens in your... _dreams_."

Xavier nodded. He'd had several 'dreams' over the past few weeks that included the Voice, as he'd dubbed it. The Voice always asked him first whether he'd collected any of the infinity fragments or whatever the hell that was, but he had no choice to say no to those constant questions. The Voice would get angry and immediately cut off the conversation, while lasted hours although it felt like mere seconds, and he always woke up clammy and drenched in sweat.

"I'll make sure to do that," he said.

"Good. Farewell, Xavier!" Merlin said with a smile, walking away.

Once Xavier reached his team, Yvette kicked him in the shin, albeit playfully. "What was that about?" she demanded.

"N-Nothing," he replied quickly. "Merlin just asked if I needed _History of Opolov_ for the trip. I said no, obviously."

"Oh." Yvette no longer looked sceptical, and Xavier felt like something heavy had just been lifted off his reptilian shoulder.

The entire room went quiet once again, although this time Zairian approached the podium, wearing sunglasses and holding her surfboard. The Azumarill's mouth was split in a wide, ecstatic grin and she surveyed her guildlings before finally speaking up. "As of now," she yelled, "the group expedition has begun!"


	9. The Group Expedition: Part Two

**Saptami Village Outskirts**

"Yes! I see civilization!"

"WOO HOO!" Cheers rang out from the group of traveling pokémon, ecstatic at this piece of information.

Xavier couldn't help but feel overjoyed. After a day and a half of unbearable marching, he was looking forward to resting his aching feet.

His…friends…looked just as glad as he did. Yvette was jumping up and down, the Torchic's entire body shaking with anticipation. Next to them, Zachary was far more mellow – he was the quiet one of the group, so it wasn't unexpected.

"We're there, everyone!" Zairian yelled from up ahead. Next to her, Vicky the Hawlucha was trying to use Thunder Punch and Fire Punch simultaneously. "Saptami Village. We'll spend the night there, and then we'll continue on our way to Grifflet's Valley. Sounds cool?"

Everybody shouted in approval.

They walked for another twenty minutes before Saptami Village materialized. First the thatched houses built from wood. Then the blue roof of a Persian bank. Then the dusty square, with long shadows stretching across it like dark fingers in the early evening light. A bunch of Patrat were clustered behind a Watchog and a Quagsire – obviously their parents – who kept staring at the expeditionary group warily as they walked further and further into the village.

"Let's stop here, Zairian," Vicky said, pointing at a structure not too far away. Said structure was fairly bigger than the rest of the buildings, with a wooden sign that said: _Saptami Bar_.

The Azumarill shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds good to me. Vicky, could you find an appropriate inn for our group if there is one? Meet us at the tavern, alright?"

Vicky sighed. "Fine."

Zairian smiled as Vicky began to separate from the group. "Okay, everyone!" She rubbed her palms excitedly. "Let's have a drink or two!"

"I thought alcohol was illegal?" Xavier said to his friends, perplexed.

Zachary rolled his eyes. "Yes, but there are other kinds of drinks, too."

Xavier blushed. "Oh. Sorry."

They followed the Guildmaster inside. The interior was a bit rustic, but thankfully not unhygienic, like he'd imagined the tavern to be. There were enough tables to seat more than thrice the number of their group, but only a few of them – perhaps three or four – were occupied by pokémon/majuu.

The expeditionary force scattered around. Team Claws took their own private table and prevented anyone else from sitting with them – not that anyone wanted to, Xavier noticed. The rest of the teams decided to mix up, with Zachary choosing go sit with Whis the Exploud and Whitney the Flaaffy of Team Strike Now, leaving Xavier and Yvette alone.

In the end, the two remaining members of Team XYZ chose to sit with the Guildmaster and Goldeenson the Mightyena of Team Trickster and Poppy the Skiploom of Team Splash.

"There don't seem to be a lot of majuu in here," Goldeenson mused aloud. The Mightyena's snapped towards the dimly lit counter. "Yo! Barman!"

"Yes?"

Everyone whipped around too see a no-nonsense looking Ambipom standing at their table, wiping a dusty mug with a rag. His tail-hands each held a jug, ready to fill them with whatever drink a client wanted. Next to him was a Shuckle, eyeing the table of majuu speculatively.

"What's up with this place?" Goldeenson pressed on gruffly. "Looks like nobody lives in this place no more."

The Ambipom smirked creepily. "That's because no one did. Not as of yesterday, at least."

Zairian frowned. "What do you mean?"

The barman sighed. "Look, _amigo_ , I ain't gonna keep answering your questions, if that's what you came here for. I run a respectable business, so if ya ain't buyin' somethin', then I ask you to sincerely go fuck yourselves."

"How _dare_ you!" Zairian raged.

Next to the Ambipom, the Shuckle spoke up in a weedy, nasally voice. "Look, we're sorry, man. It's just that Salvatore here's a bit mad 'bout what happened here. Cut him some slack."

Salvatore huffed.

Zairian didn't look forgiving, but she didn't look mad anymore, either. "Would you mind giving us details?"

The Shuckle nodded its rounded head affirmatively. "Around two days ago, some otherworldly shit happened, man. Late at night, we were all going about our own business. Caught everyone by surprise. Majuu started disappearing, then we heard some weird sounds as they did. Then some damn black rings – like portals, I guess – appeared in the skies, man. I'm telling ya, man, someone don't like us.

"Most of the majuu who weren't taken left the place. Saying that Giratina was taking them all to the Distortion World, or aliens had arrived, shit like that," the Shuckle confided. "Anyway, I don't think them majuu will be coming back. We're thinking 'bout closing the business."

Salvatore, tired of his companion's tirade, slammed the thick, glass jug on the wooden table. "Now that Jimmy here has told ya whatever y'all wanted to know, mind orderin' somethin'?"

Zairian, who seemed stunned by this news, nodded. "One Venusaur, please. And for the rest…" She looked at the others.

Xavier didn't know anything about the drinks in the pokémon world, so he just went along with it. "I'll have the same," he said.

"One Charizard mojito, please," Yvette said. Xavier blinked. It was the first time he'd ever heard her say please.

Goldeenson grunted. "I'll have a berry soda, Chople."

"Same," Poppy the Skiploom ordered.

Salvatore frowned. "So y'all want two Venusaur, one Char' mojito, n' two Chople sodas. Is that right?" Everyone nodded, and the Ambipom and Shuckle left.

"What an unpleasant majuu," Zairian voiced, glaring at the back of the Ambipom.

They spent the rest of the time talking about the treasures stored in the depths of Grifflet's Valley. Zairian had their undivided attention as she told them of her personal experiences there, most of them ending with the Azumarill finding a truckload of gold, gems, ancient artifacts and whatnot. She ended her tirade by saying that Grifflet's Valley was a place of victory, where everyone would achieve success in their goals there.

Salvatore appeared quickly, along with Jimmy. The Ambipom handed over Yvette's, Zairian's and Xavier's drinks, but withheld Goldeenson's and Poppy's for a moment. Everyone grimaced collectively when the Shuckle frowned in concentration, causing a thick, viscous purple goo to ooze out of the holes in his shell and pour onto the bubbly drinks in Ambipom's hands.

"Here ya go," Salvatore said dispassionately.

Goldeenson looked furious and disgusted. "What the hell was that!?" he raged.

Jimmy smirked. "Don't you know that the best berry juices are created like this? Or are ya one o' those rich folks who likes everything to be immaculate?"

"Damn pricks," Yvette grumbled as the barmen left. Her drink was clear in color, but what really caught Xavier's attention were the small tongues of flames on the surface. She grabbed the mug's handle with a talon and held it to her beak, ignoring the warmth of the flames. Her eyes lit up. "This is good!"

"Really?" Xavier eyed his mug with suspicion. His drink was a violent shade of green, with slices of Cheri berries floating in the drink. He looked at Zairian, who took a tentative lick from her drink. Her eyes widened and she shouted, "BARMAN!"

Salvatore appeared in a jiffy. "Yeah?"

"This has alcohol!" she yelled, outraged. Everyone, save for the Ambipom, gasped.

"So?" the ape said. "Don't you like it?"

"Alcohol is illegal!"

The Ambipom smirked. "Who gives a shit, lady? It ain't like you're gonna rush to the authorities and tell 'em 'bout this. N' even if ya do, I could just hide my stash away and deny everythin'. You should've told me that ya didn't want the happy juice in your drink."

"Fine…Make _all_ our drinks again _without_ alcohol!"

"Say the magic word," the Ambipom sang.

Zairian was shaking with barely suppressed rage, but she gave in. "… _Please_."

Salvatore smirked. "That's all ya had to say, lady."

XxXxX

The group of majuu spent the night in one of the deserted buildings of Saptami Village. There was only one inn for travelers, but the innkeeper hadn't been present, so Zairian took a risk by simply deciding to sleep there for free. It was a good thing that no one from the village decided to start a fight and prevent them from spending the night in the comfortable rooms, because otherwise it was back to camping in the great outdoors.

Xavier didn't sleep much that night. His mind was still on what that Shuckle had told them back in the tavern. Pokém— majuu disappearing overnight, and rings appearing in the sky? Either the Shuckle had mixed something white and powdery in his drink, or there was something _extremely_ weird going on here.

He contemplated the possibility of this event and him being brought to the pokémon world being connected. It was a possibility, sure, and he tried to connect the dots. He'd been brought here mystically, without reason and randomly. The majuu of Saptami Village had been _taken_ mystically, without reason and randomly. He made a mental note to look into it.

That night the gecko had a dreamless sleep, for which he was eternally grateful. One night without the Voice blabbering about his 'destiny' was one night he could sleep without waking up clammy and in his own sweat. He lay in his bed of soft straw – _This place is really outdated,_ he'd mused once they saw the rooms, but it was comfortable nonetheless.

He woke up the next morning by himself. It was odd to not have Whis come up to their room and bellow at the top of his lungs, but he decided that the remaining residents of the village wouldn't take kindly to being woken up at the crack of dawn by an eager Exploud.

The Treecko walked over lazily to the water fountain in the inn, waiting in line as his comrades slurped down the cool liquid. When it was his turn, Xavier chugged down eight canisters of water, before finally deciding that that would be enough for the day.

"Okay, people," Zairian said, gaining everyone's attention. They were currently walking through the dense forest of Grifflet's Valley, heading towards Grifflet's Cave, which was the main event of the expedition. "Here's my plan. We'll be exploring Grifflet's Cave for two days, trying to salvage and procure as much treasure as we can – it's a big Dungeon, so we have to make the most out of everything. Since you are part of the expeditionary force, you all will be given your own guildgears. Vicky, if you will please hand one over to each one present."

Vicky nodded, calling for everyone to form a line. Xavier complied, a bit perplexed. He didn't have a clue as to what a guildgear was, but from the anticipation and excitement on everyone's faces he concluded that it was something good.

When it was his turn, Vicky handed over something similar to a wristwatch. With an ornate silver color, it resembled something like a pokeball, much to Xavier's amusement, with tiny wings on either side of the top half. The protruding nob in the center protruded slightly and Xavier found out that it was a button - one that set the nearest guildgear – Zachary's – into a beeping fit until Zairian pressed the button on her own with a sigh.

"The guildgears are handed over only to those majuu who have joined the guild on a yearly expedition," Zairian explained proudly, "a requirement that you all fill. Press the middle button if you're in a pickle; it will send a signal to my own guildgear and those nearest to you. To end the signal, simply press the button again. Or simply use one of your escape orbs."

Everyone nodded. Xavier noticed everyone putting it on their wrists – or ankles, in the case of the quadrupeds – so he did the same. The Treecko found out that the adjustable strap was so smooth that he barely felt anything save for the cool metal of the gear.

"Now that that's done," Vicky said gruffly, the Hawlucha putting her talons on her hips, "let's get going!"

The squadron yelled out cheers, although they quickly shut off once Zairian put up her hand in the universal sign to stop. "Before we proceed, I have something to say," the Azumarill declared. "To promote inter-team unity, I have decided to not allow you to navigate the mystery dungeon in your original groups, but to split the lot of you into mixed teams!"

There were cries of outrage and grumbling.

Vicky sighed. "I told you that wasn't gonna sell."

"The next person to talk will be sent back to the guild immediately!" Zairian screamed. Everyone fell silent. "You have no say in this; if you do protest, kindly leave. Anyone objects? Good."

And so the Guildmaster began to rattle of the temporary teams, much to everyone's disappointment. Xavier was sad to see Zachary teamed up with Kuronova and Spyke of Team Claws, while Rachel of the same team was paired up with Xavier, Goldeenson and Yvette. The Weavile was not pleased.

"Why do I have to be teamed up with these pipsqueaks!?" Rachel hissed.

Yvette scowled. "Nobody wants to be with you, bitch!" the Torchic yelled angrily.

"Enough!" Zairian roared. "My orders are final, and if you don't like it, then you can very well fu—"

"O-kay," Vicky interrupted. "Y'all better not complain anymore, 'cause when the Guildmaster starts cursing then shit's about to get real." Zairian huffed and didn't say anything about it. Yvette and Rachel relented, but the two were still glaring daggers at each other. If looks could kill, the two of them would be dead a hundred times over.

"Let's go, everyone!" Zairian and Vicky said. "Onwards!"

Xavier and Zachary fist-bumped. "Watch out for those two," Xavier told his original team leader.

The Croagunk grinned. "I could say the same to you." He pointed over Xavier's shoulder, where Yvette and Rachel looked ready to rip into each other. Xavier sighed, wondering what the heck Zairian had been drinking while making the teams up.

XxXxX

 **Grifflet's Cave – B1F**

Xavier looked at Goldeenson. "Can I ask you a question?"

The Mightyena nodded. "Sure."

"Why's you're name Goldeenson? I mean, from the perspective of an actual Goldeen, let's say, it would seem as a ridiculous name."

Goldeenson grinned, but it was more like he bared his sharp fangs. "Before I joined the guild I used to live in a monospecies tribe," said the hyena-like pokémon, "so we all kinda had tribal names. For example, my pa's name is Crag, because the first thing his pa saw after he was born was a Graveler. My parents named me Goldeenson because I loved being near – or in – water. Ma even used to tell me that I spent more time with the Magikarp than my tribe."

Xavier blinked. "That's…Interesting."

"Oh, shut up," Rachel groaned, the Weavile absent-mindedly sharpening her claws. "You're boring me to death, the lot of you."

"I hope we succeed," Yvette growled. Rachel heard it, and that sent the two of them in another glaring contest.

"Can the two of you be done with it?" Goldeenson snapped. "Y'all are driving me crazy."

It had been an hour since they'd entered the dungeon – well, it felt like an hour. Xavier had read up that time was faster in Mystery Dungeons, so an hour outside would be little over five minutes in Dungeons. Space was oddly distorted, too. It looked like there was an infinite amount of space, but they could only explore a finite amount of it. And the worst part was finding the passageway to the next level, which, for some reason, appeared as badly sculpted marble stairs that mysteriously warped them to the next floor. So far Xavier hadn't explored any Mystery Dungeons, but the Treecko mused that if they existed in his world, scientists would have a field day.

"Don't forget, chicken, I could crush you in a minute," Rachel hissed.

"Just make sure that my flames don't burn you too badly," Yvette replied in a mock-sweet voice.

 _By God_ , Xavier groaned in his mind. _If they keep going at it, they'll be dead before any wild majuu can get at them._

"I just hope we get to the next floor as quickly as we can," Xavier said aloud. He was elated for doing so, as the next clearing they entered into had a set of jagged, granite stairs smack in the middle of the room, leading straight into the ground. There were only a few steps visible, as the rest blurred into oblivion.

It was only a second later that the Treecko noticed two other entities in the room – a Girafarig and a Camerupt – both feral.

The Camerupt roared, drawing the Girafarig's attention away from it and towards the motley crew of four expeditionary majuu.

"Take 'em out!" Goldeenson roared, a brutal grin of bloodlust on his face, similar to the one on Rachel's. The Mightyena and Weavile immediately rushed towards their opponents, who were doing the same.

"Holy shit!" Yvette squeaked. "This is awesome!"

Seeing little point in staying at the sidelines, Xavier shrugged before joining in. Yvette went to aid Goldeenson, who had avoided a sudden Iron Head from Camerupt, and retaliated with an Ice Fang. The Mightyena clamped his jaws shut onto the Camerupt's neck, sending it screaming in pain as Yvette drop-kicked it with a Night Slash, her talons scraping its eyes.

Xavier let loose a Dragonbreath that licked and seared the fur on Girafarig's left flank, causing it to shriek in anger and pain. The problem was that it was a lucky shot – he knew that the tail was nothing but another head capable of independent decisions and actions, which meant that it never kept its eyes off Rachel and Xavier. The tail kept attacking Rachel with Razor Winds and Crunches, while the main head kept Xavier busy with Psybeams and whatnot.

Xavier jumped back, using Protect to deflect the Zen Headbutt straight for him. The impact sent the Girafarig a bit stunned, and taking this chance Rachel struck it on the left flank with a Night Slash, the Weavile's claws too strong and sending her opponent to the side. The psychic-type groaned and tried to rise up, but Xavier was ready to keep it down for good.

"Take this!" the Treecko said, pulling out a blast seed from his satchel and hurling it at the fallen Girafarig's underside, where it exploded upon impact. The detonation knocked it out and knocked it several feet away, its limp body unmoving on the ground.

Rachel grinned despite herself. "Nice touch, Treecko."

"Thanks," he replied shortly. Not far away, Goldeenson sank his fangs further into the Camerupt's flesh until it essentially stopped flopping.

"There." The Mightyena's long tongue cleaned his teeth of whatever blood he had drawn from the feral Camerupt. "Tasty."

Xavier made a face, but the rest didn't seem to disturbed. "I thought cannibalism was a crime?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but he just drew blood. Ain't a big deal, Treecko."

"My name is Xavier," the Treecko in question ground out.

Rachel shrugged. There was a glint in the dark-type's eyes. "Never said I give a shit."

Before Xavier could respond, she moved her claws in a 'come hither' motion. "Let's go before we get any more ferals on our asses."

XxXxX

 **Grifflet's Cave - B2F**

Descending the stairs wasn't the worst feeling he'd experienced, but it definitely made on Xavier's top five list. It felt like his insides had been pulled through his nose before being shoved back in through his rear-end. When his feet hit the floor, he stumbled and clutched his stomach to prevent himself from puking, but he did it anyway.

" _Xavier_!" Yvette reprimanded. She looked disgusted, and even Goldeenson looked miffed.

Rachel simply guffawed outright. "Oh, you pipsqueak! When I was in my first stage it took five stairs before I even _felt_ like vomiting!" Xavier glared at her.

"Shut up."

They passed through another labyrinthine corridor and got into another scuffle. An Omanyte decided to make its presence known from the waters surrounding them by spitting a jet of water at Yvette, but Xavier intercepted and took the hit, allowing his grass-type to make it ineffective, even though it stung a little. Still, it only took an Absorb for Xavier to drain all the energy out of the aquatic creature, letting its unconscious form float on the water as they moved on.

Xavier spent most of the time trying to figure out Mystery Dungeons. He'd asked his companions and they'd responded by saying that nobody cared much about studying them. Were they simply dimensional anomalies? Or the results of Dialga's and Palkia's residual energy merging to form such locations? As silly as it sounded, it could be true. He'd never thought of a human being transported to a world solely inhabited by pokémon, either.

"I found something!" Everyone's attention turned to Goldeenson, who had bounded off after a few seconds of sniffing. Following him, they found an unconscious Spoink, but what caught their attention was the object the Mightyena had kept a paw on.

Goldeenson looked proud. "Lookit this!" he said smugly. "Look what I found!"

It was a pitch-black plate that looked like it had been made out of pure obsidian. There was something…off…about it. Xavier felt a spark of hopelessness in himself. Goldeenson and Rachel, on the other hand, looked like Christmas's had come early (if they _did_ celebrate Christmas here). Goldeenson seemed to be affected the most. He looked…hungry.

Rachel's eyes widened in awe and not a tiny bit of envy. "A _Dread Plate_? No friggin' way!"

"Yep." The Mightyena nodded. "And it's mine."

"Sod off! Give it to me!"

"I found it first!"

"I called dibs, you dumb mutt!"

"Who gives a shit, you freaky fuck?"

"Shut up!" Yvette screamed. Rachel and Goldeenson went silent. "Stop acting like a bitch, Rachel, it's his. Goldeenson found it first. If you've got any problems then find your own treasure! You don't own anyone except for the two clawed shits that keep following you everywhere!"

Rachel narrowed her eyes, but didn't say anything except for, "Fuck off."

Yvette promised Goldeenson to keep his Dread Plate in her satchel until they exited the Dungeon, the Mightyena casting a final scowl at Rachel before they moved on. It seemed like the Weavile had a tendency to piss off even the friendliest of guildmembers.

They found a few more treasures – evolutionary stones, color shards, gems, even a TM for Teleport, to name a few – and battled several feral pokémon. They tried to leave the sleeping ones alone, but Rachel took particular pleasure in waking them up with her ice attacks and knocking them out with a flurry of Metal Claws once they were awake and momentarily stunned. The Weavile was ruthless, Xavier analyzed.

There was only one time when a majuu caught them off-guard. The Raticate was pretending to be asleep, and sank its claws into an overconfident Yvette the moment she came too close. It knocked her out when everyone was surprised by the sudden movement, but with the combined efforts of Goldeenson and Xavier the savage rodent was taken care of. They even brought Yvette back to the realm of consciousness with one of their revival seeds, so there was very little harm done.

"Sleep seed, now!" shouted Yvette as she scratched a Marshtomp across the face. The amphibious majuu groaned and clutched at its face before Goldeenson complied, taking a sleep-inducing seed from the satchel and spitting it at the distracted Marshtomp. The seed burst softly, grey powders being released as they entered Marshtomp's bloodstream via its nose and mouth. Within a second it hit the floor, and Rachel lunged forward to finish it off.

Once she was done, she dusted her claws and grinned maniacally at her companions.

Yvette nodded. "That was good, but I'm _gooder_."

Xavier blinked. "You mean better."

"Whatever."

The Treecko shrugged. "Forget it. Anyway, we're low on seeds right now. We only have three more revival seeds, so we've got to be careful. And we only have four escape orbs. We can't lose them. Also, we—"

"Blah, blah, blah," Rachel cut off with a roll of her eyes. "We got it, Greenhorn. Can you stop with the professor act?"

Xavier flushed angrily. "Well, we'll see how well you do when we don't keep track on such useful necessities—"

"Honey, I've been exploring Mystery Dungeons before you were even born!"

"How old are you?"

Rachel looked smug. "Twelve." She said that as if it ended the argument.

Xavier blinked. _What the…Twelve?!_ Xavier though, incredulous. _Well, pokémon do age faster than humans, both physically and mentally so it doesn't come as a surprise…Hmm…I wonder how old I am…_

"Hey! Dreamer Boy!" Xavier jarred out of his thoughts once he heard Yvette shrieking. The Torchic looked annoyed. "We going or what?"

XxXxX

 **Grifflet's Cave - B16F**

"Hey, guys!" Xavier exclaimed, moving his hand in a come hither motion. "I think I found something!"

The sound of footfalls loudened with splashes as Yvette and Goldeenson approached, their feet wet from walking in puddles. The mystery dungeon was getting damper and damper with each passing floor. "What's up?" Goldeenson growled, his large, pink tongue flicking out as he licked his nose.

"I found this." Xavier pointed at the small, brown treasure chest a few steps in front of him. It looked like a typical chest, except there was no visible keyhole. What even?

"Oh, you found one of these." Goldeenson scrunched his face in annoyance. The Mightyena scowled. "I hate these things."

"What's going on, ya chumps?" a voice drawled. Xavier resisted the urge to glower as Rachel walked closer, her entire posture lazy. "Did ya find a gravelerock or something?"

"No, you stupid bitch," Yvette hissed, the Torchic nudging her foot in the treasure chest's direction. "We found this?"

Thankfully, Rachel ignored the insult as she examined the loot. "Oh," the Weavile said a moment later. "Another one of these."

"What are they?" Xavier, asked, curious.

"These things are the best safes ever," Goldeenson explained. "Exploration teams get these when they have really precious stuff that they don't want to lose. The only problem is that sometimes, they either lose these safes, or they're left behind when exploration teams perish during a mission. Other teams collect these safes, but they're a big pain in the ass and can only be opened by exerting a strong amount of psychic power."

"Which means that we can't open this here," Yvette added.

"Know any psychic moves, Rach?" Goldeenson quipped.

Rachel shook her head. "Nah," said the Weavile. "Even if I did, I don't think I'd be able to open this shit, anyway." She seemed a bit reluctant to admit this. "Let's take this to Jezebel – she'll be able to open it."

"Jezebel?" Xavier said, confused.

"Jeez, Treecko, don't ya know anything?" Rachel said sarcastically. "Jezebel's our local seer. She's a Xatu, so it helps a lot. She tells our fortune too if we pay her a couple hundred Poké, but she also opens psi-safes."

"So we can take this back to Gem Town and then split the loot three ways," Goldeenson suggested.

Yvette frowned. "Don't you mean four?"

"Goldeenson shook his head. "Look, you and Xavier here are part of the same team," he explained. "So we group you together! Don't you get it?"

Yvette puffed up angrily. Noticing a brewing argument, Xavier butted in, not in the mood for another fight. The group expedition had seemed fun at first, but monotonously roaming through dungeons was getting boring. "Why don't we figure this out later?" he suggested. "Instead of wasting time, we might as well grab some more loot over here."

The rest agreed, and Xavier ignored the glare Yvette sent in Goldeenson's direction. "Can we continue? We're wasting time."

They continued pillaging the cavern for what felt like an hour, finding another psi-safe, fresh fruit, a dusty, used TM that Xavier kept anyway, and a cluster of blast seeds that had only been found due to Goldeenson's keen sense of smell.

"I dare you to throw them all at once," Goldeenson urged with a grin, looking at the blast seeds Xavier was stuffing carefully in their knapsack.

Xavier shot him a disgruntled look. "I'm not signing my own death certificate, Gold."

Suddenly, the guildgear on their wrists began to beep frantically. Xavier jumped at the sudden sound, but quickly calmed down and stared at the other three majuu.

"Someone's in trouble," Xavier said with a frown.

Rachel shrugged. "Eh. Someone else'll get to 'em."

"We have to help them," Goldeenson said.

"Unless you're too scared to fight off some feral pokémon," Yvette said.

Rachel scowled. She extended her claws, the Weavile's talons flashing dangerous. "I'm not scared of nothing!" she said. "C'mon. Let's find the idiots who've managed to get into trouble."

XxXxX

 **Grifflet's Cave — B23F**

The air was getting thick with water vapor with every dungeon level they passed. It felt cool to Xavier's skin, and the Treecko actually liked the damper atmosphere compared to the dry wasteland that the upper levels of the dungeon were. It didn't bother Rachel, who just kept walking on ahead with a cool gaze, but Goldeenson and Yvette were a completely different story – the Mightyena had turned disgruntled with the way his thick fur had turned wet, and Yvette simply didn't like the damp atmosphere, what with her being a fire-type and all.

Their guildgears had finally stopped beeping a while ago, which was a relief, since it tended to wake up the sleeping feral majuu residing in the dungeon. But apart from a clearly powerful Machoke, they had no trouble beating their opponents into submission.

"This is getting boring," Xavier grumbled as they took a break. The unconscious form of a Dragonair lay several feet away from them, its cascade scales frozen due to Rachel's powerful Ice Beams. "How long do you think we've been here?"

Goldeenson bit a chunk from his apple. "Hard to tell." The Mightyena shrugged, then proceeded to finish the rest of his fruit. "Time is faster in the dungeon. If you spend five minutes in here—"

"It's actually a few hours outside, I know," Xavier said. The Treecko sighed. "I want to get out of here as fast as I can."

Rachel scoffed. "And you wanna become the best exploration team there is," she said disparagingly.

Xavier ignored her.

They spent a some more time relaxing, before they packed up their supplies and got up to continue their trek. Before they could, however, Rachel walked over to the unconscious Dragonair and inspected it carefully. "What are you doing?" Yvette asked her in puzzlement.

"Just a minute." Then, to everyone else's horror, she slashed her claws at the frozen scales on the dragon-type majuu's body and ripped them off. The iridescent blue scales came off, leaving the flesh of the Dragonair exposed, but Rachel quickly fired another Ice Beam to shut the wound.

"What was that?!" Xavi exclaimed, horrified as he saw the Weavile pocket the scales.

Rachel looked at him in surprise. "What? Dragon scales are quite rare. Some people will pay a high price for just one."

Xavier looked at her in disgust; then he realized that this was probably the same way many people acquired dragon scales in the human world. That didn't make his mood better, however.

"C'mon." Xavier grunted. "Let's find the next staircase."

Surprisingly, there were no more twists and turns here – instead, it was a straight path, surrounded by tall, tropical trees and barely any pokémon. They steered clear of any sleeping ferals, but they did manage to fend off an incredibly large Tropius whom Yvette had managed to aggravate by trying to use one of the bananas for target practice. In the end, the monstrous grass-type had walked away after Goldeenson threatened it with an Ice Fang.

At the end of the path was no staircase – just two, tall pillars, like totems carved out of black stone, with the head of a Rhydon on top. It seemed like the entrance to a palace, or something.

"What's this?" Yvette asked in curiosity. The Torchic looked excited.

"Probably the last level," Rachel mused. "I bet there's a load of treasure here. Let's go!"

The next thing they was simply blew their minds.

A vast expanse of colors met their eyes, greeting them in full as the four majuu slowed to a halt to take in every single detail presented in front of them. Lush green grass covered the ground, with tulips and daffodils blooming in random spots. Large boulders were placed helter-skelter, with moss growing on them, and the ceiling, which seemed to be as high as the sky, was embedded with glittering jewels. A large mountain was placed at the far end of the cavern, a waterfall cascading down and forming a ginormous, bubbling lake. It looked like something out of a fairytale.

"Holy shit," Xavier mumbled.

The Butterfree carrying pollen suddenly stopped, and stared at the four explorers. For a second, there was no sound. Then a high, keening screech erupted, blending in with several others, the piercing sound making Xavier, Goldeenson, Yvette and Rachel wince in pain.

"Ow!" Yvette said.

The lake bubbled.

All of a sudden, a spout of water burst from the lake, curving down high up in the air and heading towards them. The four majuu screamed and leapt away, the blast of water crashing exactly where they'd been standing a few seconds ago. The grass sizzled as the boiling hot water drenched it, tendrils of smoke rising from it.

"Wh-What?!" Xavier exclaimed, as the water formed into a large ball before dispersing and leaving a new majuu in their presence.

"You dare?" the creature bellowed in anger.

Its purple mane shook and the white ribbons fluttered as a gust of wind blew into the room. Sharp claws sprouted from the beasts paws, it's blue and white fur glistening from the water that had soaked it. The diamond-shaped hoop on top of its head shone with power, and its red eyes swiveled to glare at the four explorers who stared at the legend in shock.

"Intruders," the Suicune snarled, a growl bubbling in the back of its throat. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"


End file.
